2023 Rolex 24: Post-Race Notebook

Aside from the start to the GTP era there was plenty else to applaud after an incident packed, close fought 2023 IMSA season opener.

LMP2 saw some excellent racing, some sizeable accidents, and an astonishing finish.

Proton Competition took the win on their LMP2 debut – 7th overall, no mean feat in itself, but James Allen did so literally on the finish line, taking victory by 0.016 of a second over regular ELMS rival Ben Hanley, driving for the similarly debuting Crowdstrike Racing by APR, Algarve Pro Racing James’s 2022 LMP2 team!

The evergreen and still hungry Gianmaria Bruni, Fred Poordad and Francesco Pizzi, both also LMP2 debutants share the win.

The class saw 4-5 cars in it to win it until a spin in the last hour counted out the much-fancied #52 PR1 Mathiesen car, A clash between Hanley and Job van Uitert, again in the final stages put the surviving TDS Racing car on the back foot and saw the reigning WEC Championship winning AF Corse effort take the final step on the podium.

LMP3 saw something of a meltdown with multiple major engine issues a rare feature for the class.

In the end the #17 AWA Duquiene D08 as the only car not to suffer a significant delay, Wayne Boyd coming home to take the win and claim the watch with Nico Varrone, Anthony Mantellaand Thomas Merrill.

Sean Creech Motorsport took a distant second in the #33 Ligier JS P320after being in contention for much of the event before a delay caused by a broken gearbox acuator. Their pitlane repair though kept them clear of the #38 Performance Tech Ligier.

GTD came down to a 12 car group on the lead lap into the final hour with five GTD Pros and seven GTD class cars duking it out in as deep and as close a battle as this race has seen in the modern era.

It would be a GTD car that eventually headed the group to the line, 16th overall, and it would make a little bit of history with the #27 Heart of Racing squad of Marco Sorensen whose cool head took it to the finish, teamed with Darren Turner, Ian James and Roman de Angelis scoring the first ever win for the British marque here since its debut in 1959.

It also adds to a 24 Hour class winning record that already includes the Nurburgring 24 Hours and Le Mans 24 Hours for Sorensen and Turner.

The GTD PRO-winning #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 Tok the win in what s slated to be the final IMSA drive for Cooper MacNeil, Maro Engel, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon, Engel taking the car to the front of the class group and fending off the pressure being applied by class rivals, Corvette Racing and Vasser Sullivan Lexus, both of which led the class in the final hour in a fine, and mainly very clean, class battle, aside from some physicality that saw the eventual clash winner bundled off track briefly at T4.

The chasing pair were though shuffled back by a late-race charge from Nicki Thiim in the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin giving the marque a one-two and another podium here for John Potter, Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly.

Arguably a missed opportunity, the Inception Racing McLaren led the pack coming into the penultimate caution period and the team were unique in the leading group in opting not to pit.

That left Marvin Kirchhofer to fight back through the pack for the second time in an hour, he made it back to the podium to seal another great IMSA result for the team with Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy and Frederick Schandorff.

Beyond that there’s things to rap up on a subject we try only to refer to post-race, BoP – The results were clear, the BoP for the new The 992 Porsche 911 GT3 R was simply wrong, the cars nowhere near competitive across the race in GTD, with the Pfaff GTD PRO crew staying close enough to pop into the lead lap with some wave-by help.

The new Ferrari 296 GT3 didn’t really feature either with two cars eliminated to floor damage after contact – perhaps one of those things that emerge about a new car only in racing rather than testing!.

LMP3 disappointed with too many incidents, too much unreliability and a class that, overall, was a good advert not to do this next year.

LMP2 too saw some significant incidents but few, if any seemed to be a result of the ‘stratification’ process that got oxygen elsewhere in this race week.

Overall though this was a race that showed that the sport is on an exciting track, strength in depth everywhere, public and media interest aplenty, and more new product en route.

2023 is in the books – now we wait to see how these themes develop!

By The Numbers

GTP
No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian | Acura ARX-06
Third Rolex 24 At Daytona overall victory
16th IMSA victory
Second consecutive Rolex 24 At Daytona overall victory
First team to win in the modern GTP prototype era; first victory for Acura ARX-06
Third consecutive Rolex 24 victory for Acura, second with Meyer Shank Racing

Colin Braun
Third Rolex 24 At Daytona class victory
Fourth IMSA victory at Daytona
23rd series class victory

Helio Castroneves
Third Rolex 24 overall victory
Third consecutive Rolex 24 victory
Second driver to win three consecutive overall Rolex 24, first to do so in three straight years
10th series victory
Follows win at 2022 season finale at Road Atlanta with MSR

Simon Pagenaud
Second Rolex 24 At Daytona victory; second consecutive
12th class victory
Previous start was his 2022 Rolex 24 victory with MSR

Tom Blomqvist
Second Rolex 24 class victory; second consecutive
Third class victory
Follows win at 2022 season finale at Road Atlanta with MSR

LMP2
Unofficial margin of victory of 0.016 seconds

No. 55 Proton Competition
First Rolex 24 victory
Second IMSA win, first since Sebring 2012

James Allen
First Rolex 24 win
First class win in third start
Previous best finish of 3rd at 2019 Rolex 24

Gianmaria Bruni
First Rolex 24 win
Fourth class in in 35th start
Last win was at Road Atlanta 2011

Fred Poordad
First Rolex 24 win
First class win in third start
Last start was at Rolex 24 in 2012 GT

Francesco Pizzi
First Rolex 24 win
First class win in first IMSA start

LMP3
No. 17 AWA
First class win for the organization

Thomas Merrill
Second career win
First Daytona win

Wayne Boyd
First Career win
First Daytona win

Anthony Mantella
First Career win
First Daytona win

Nico Varrone
First career win
First Daytona win in first start at the track

GTD PRO
No. 79 Weather Tech Racing
Fourth Career win
First Rolex 24 win

Maro Engel
Second career win
Second Rolex 24 win, both in the last three years

Jules Gounon
First Career win
First Rolex 24 win

Daniel Juncadella
First career win

Cooper MacNeil
12th career win
First Rolex 24 win

GTD
No. 27 Heart of Racing Team
Seventh career win
First Rolex 24 win

Roman DeAngelis
Sixth career win
First Rolex 24 win

Ian James
11th career win
First Rolex 24 win

Marco Sorensen
First career win

Darren Turner
Sixth career win
First Rolex 24 win

Top pic ©Rolex/Jensen Larson