Nick Tandy, Laurens Vanthoor, and Felipe Nasr have won the 24 Hours of Daytona, taking victory for Porsche, with second place going to the #60 Meyer Shank Acura squad of Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist.
Porsche dominated much of the second half of the race with either one of their cars, the crew of the winning #7 machine or the drivers in the #7, Kevin Estre, Mathieu Jaminet, amd Matt Campbell.
In third was the #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, and Felix Rosenqvist. Blomqvist, in the car for the final couple ofd hours until the flag, sat fourth at the final restart with 45 minutes to go, but inherited third when Dries Vanthoor made contact with Nasr’s Porsche, knocking an already-broken nose askew and forcing the Belgian to pit, losing him a lap and dropping him to fifth.
D. Vanthoor started the race on pole and immediately opened up a gap in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8, which stood at 25 seconds when he pitted to be replaced by his teammate Philipp Eng.
However, as he entered the BMW’s pit stall, the Belgian clonked the pit wall on drivers’ left, with the car at an angle. This cost the team time as they had to straighten it before servicing the car, with Eng exiting the pits in P4.
This put Daytona debutant Kaku Ohta, in the #93 Meyer Shank Acura, in the lead of the race, with another debutant, Cadillac’s Frederik Vesti, onboard the #31 Action Express car, second.
The race’s first caution was then called as Hunter McElrea in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca LMP2 crashed into the wall. Although he was able to continue, a full course caution was called.
When the race went green again, with 21 hours and 28 minutes remaining. Ohta had pitted in the caution period, meaning at the restart Nick Tandy, in the #7 Porsche, and Vesti were fighting for the lead.
The Briton immediately took first off Vesti, with the two BMWs, Rene Rast in the #25 and Eng in the #24, second and third.
The #7 Porsche, with Tandy or L. Vanthoor at the wheel, led the race for much of the next two hours.
However, into the fifth hour and the next full course yellow was called, which put Kamui Kobayashi, in the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac for a guest appearance, into the lead.
The Japanese driver retained the lead at the restart and extended a small but workable gap over Kevin Estre in the #6 Porsche, around two seconds.
However, Estre soon reeled the Cadillac in and overtook Kobayashi, drawing out a gap of 15 seconds.
Darkness falls at Daytona
With just over 18 hours remaining, with the race now shrouded in darkness, the third full course yellow, caused by Andy Lally’s #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, had stopped on track at turn 2, leaking fluid on track.
The GTPs pitted under yellow, shuffling the order and putting Earl Bamber, now in the #31 Cadillac, in the lead from Campbell, Braun, and Nasr. Kobayashi sat seventh as the green flag dropped again.
At the restart, a small kerfuffle amongst the leaders meant Braun took the lead from Bamber.
Kobayashi, though, was on a charge and went from fourth, where he ended at the first lap after the restart, to first in the space of a lap.
He soon extended a gap of nine seconds to second-placed Nasr, who had a half second cushion over Bamber in third.
Deletraz took over from Kobayashi, but Raffaele Marciello, in the #24 BMW, soon passed the Swiss driver for the lead at the beginning of the eighth hour.
The fourth FCY called a temporary truce to proceedings, with the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin losing its rear wheel.
The race restarted with 16 and a half hours remaining, now with Jack Aitken in the #31 Cadillac leading after taking over from Bamber in the stops under caution.
Chaos at turn 1 after restart
However, it was immediately put back under caution as a crash involving six cars at turn 1 caused mayhem.
It started when Deletraz’s Cadillac snapped as he put power turn exiting turn 1, on cold tyres. The car spun into the barriers on drivers’ left, then ricocheted back on track into the paths of multiple LMP2s and GTD cars.
The Cadillac was an immediate retirement after being sideswiped by Nick Boulle’s #2 United Autosports Oreca, which also caused the LMP2 car to retire from the race. Another casualty was the #9 Pfaff Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, with Jordan Pepper at the wheel.
The race went green again 25 minutes later after a ‘short yellow’. Aitken kept the lead at the restart, followed by Tandy and Blomqvist in the #60 Meyer Shank Acura.
Tandy soon passed Aitken for the lead, with Aitken dropping to fourth, as Jaminet made it a Porsche 1-2 in the #6 Porsche. The Briton had a 12 second lead over his teammate as the race’s eighth hour ended, with BMW’s D. Vanthoor a further half a second back.
Over the course of the next hour, Aitken found pace again and got back to second, catching Tandy, with D. Vanthoor less than a second behind Aitken, putting all three together on track.
Tandy handed soon over to L. Vanthoor. The Belgian’s brother, handed his BMW back over to Eng, and at the top of the tenth hour, Eng led from Albuquerque in the #10 Cadillac and Porsche’s Estre.
The next full course yellow shuffled the order yet again as the GTPs took the advantage and pitted, apart from Frederik Vesti, now back in the #31 Cadillsc, and Eng. This put them in the lead from the two Porsches.
Eng passed Vesti at the restart, which was originally waved off due to race control noticing an unspecified issue.
Vesti had dropped to fourth by the time the restart had shaken out. However, soon after, he spun on the banking, hitting the wall with the front of the car and coming to a stop on the tarmac infield on drivers’ left near the pit lane.
The Dane, obviously frustrated, attempted to get the car back, but with broken suspension and bodywork it was an impossibility. The marshals towed it back to pit lane and it spent time in the garage being repaired, although it did get back out eventually, 50 laps down.
Back at the sharp end and at the restart, Nasr passed Albuquerque for the lead.
The Brazilian held the lead for much of the next couple of hours, crossing the half way point in the race.
Full course yellows #8 and #9 followed each other in quick succession. When the raced restarted for good, with just over 11 hours remaining, Tandy, who’d taken over from Nasr, sat third, with the sister car of Campbell ahead and the Acura of Colin Braun in the lead.
Campbell took the lead off Braun into the bus stop, while Tandy dropped to fourth behind Will Stevens in the #10 Cadillac.
The Australian Porsche driver, now in the lead, built a six second gap to Braun, but as usual in IMSA, the next caution, with 10 hours 14 remaining, destroyed this.
With just under 10 hours remaining the race went green again with Jaminet in the lead.
He held the lead from Blomqvist and Marciello at the restart. Over the next couple of hours, he built a small gap to his teammate L. Vanthoor, who sat second, before handing over to Estre. Likewise, L. Vanthoor handed over to Nasr.
Porsche begins to dominate
For the next few hours, under the cover of darkness, the two Porsches ran line of stern in 1-2 formation, with the gap varying between them. Multiple FCYs came and went, but the two Porsches were able to defend and consolidate their positions.
As day broke and the race got down to the sharp end with a few hours remaining, the race got more fraught and aggressive.
At this point, with the race now in daylight, the #24 BMW started to come back into focus. D. Vanthoor had the pace in the daylight earlier in the race and now his teammate, Kevin Magnussen, also had pace.
Magnussen was pushing hard to take the long-held 1-2 off Porsche, and he eventually achieved it. He took second off Campbell, with the Australian took it back the next corner. A few minutes later, Magnussen made the move stick, and started to close the 3.5 second gap to Nick Tandy ahead.
Magnussen was able to get the gap down to 2 seconds before Tandy putted, promoting the Dane to the lead. Both the BMW and Campbell pitted from the lead and second the same lap, rejoining in the same order, with Jaminet replacing Campobell.
Magnussen’s car did not got fitted with new tyres, and he soon felt this. Jaminet passed him in short order after the stops, and over the next stint the Frenchman was able to open a 4.4 second gap to the BMW before the next pitstops.
Eng replaced Magnussen, 20 seconds back from Tandy, who now led in the #7 Porsche. Estre was in between them, 5 seconds behind Tandy and 15 seconds ahead of Eng.
The final couple hours: it all comes to a head
The race’s penultimate caution was called with just over two hours remaining. D. Vanthoor, who had started the race on pole and opened that gap, was now in the car until the end, and he sat second at the restart behind Nasr and in front of Estre, which Blomqvist fourth.
Nasr got a jump on the field, but D. Vanthoor was able to close in on him throughout the following lap. He managed to use the draft to pass the Brazilian. But, when D. Vanthoor went deep into turn 1 the following lap, Nasr was able to take the lead back, and he made it stick through the rest of the infield, running side by side through the horseshoe and the kink, until D. Vanthoor had to finally relinquish the position.
Estre soon passed the BMW too, using traffic at turn 6 to pass the D. Vanthoor. The BMW driver then tried to get alongside going into the bus stop, but Estre successfully defended and then made an audacious move, cutting the bus stop kerbs and passing the #1 BMW GTD Pro car of Kelvin van der Linde.
Estre was told to give the position back as he gained an advantage, but it wasn’t long before he was back in second.
At the final caution restart, the order was Campbell, D. Vanthoor, Nasr and Blomqvist. However, D. Vanthoor had knocked the nose loose on the BMW and this was causing handling issues, although the team elected not replace it in the caution pitstop.
At the restart, D. Vanthoor’s bodywork issue on his BMW got worse, and he had to pit to replace it after he made light contact with Campbell’s Porsche. This gave Porsche a 1-2, with Nasr now fighting Campbell for the win.
Nasr drafted past Campbell into turn 1 to take the lead, a lead he didn’t relinquish until he crossed the line to take the win, along with his teammates Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor.
But the race wasn’t quite over. Blomqvist was now third after D. Vanthoor pitted to have the BMW’s nose replaced. The Briton caught, and passed, Campbell with just minutes remaining, destroying Porsche’s dream of a 1-2 and putting Acura, Meyer Shank, plus Blomqvist and his teammates Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist and Colin Braun, into second.
Kevin Estre, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet finished the race third, with Dries Vanthoor, Philipp Eng, Raffaele Marciello, afnd Kevin Magnussen fourth, a lap down.
Fifth was the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor, Will Stevens and Brendon Hartley finished fifth, 22 seconds off the #24 BMW ahead.
