Acura defeats Cadillac in Daytona 24 thriller

Heartbreak for Chip Ganassi Racing

A seventh Rolex 24 Hours victory for one of US racing’s greatest teams looked on the cards as the clock ticked down in the final hour, as Dutchman van der Zande’s plain white Cadillac stalked the leading Acura of Portuguese ace Felipe Albuquerque. You got the feeling this was personal. Last year, van der Zande was on the driving strength of Wayne Taylor Racing’s winning entry, just as he had been in 2019 too. But following a split with the team, here he was in a car run by WTR’s greatest rival – and with a chance to spoil its bid for a Daytona hat-trick and fourth win in five years, in the wake of its switch away from Cadillac to the Honda-owned Acura brand.

Albuquerque emerged from the final pit stops with a decent advantage over van der Zande, and in a race during which it had been the fastest car more often than not, it looked to be game, set and match for WTR and Acura. But van der Zande wasn’t about to let this go. Especially given the car he was chasing.

After drawing his prey in, he’d briefly drawn alongside Albuquerque’s black and blue DPi and looked set to inspire one of the most exciting finishes in sportscar racing history – only to suddenly dive into the pit road with a right-rear puncture. On the pitwall, his former team boss Wayne Taylor put his hands to his masked face and stared into the heavens with relief.

Albuquerque, who came to Daytona off the back of winning the LMP2 class at both the Le Mans 24 Hours and in the World Endurance Championship in 2020, shared his victory with Ricky Taylor, son of Wayne, and former Indianapolis 500 winners Alexander Rossi and Helio Castroneves. The result ends Cadillac’s four-year winning streak at the Rolex 24.

Van der Zande’s puncture also scuppered Kevin Magnussen’s hopes of winning his first race since his exile from Formula 1. The former Haas driver had more than played his part within the Chip Ganassi squad in his first long-distance sportscar race, a form of motorsport his father and fellow ex-F1 racer Jan also excelled at. Magnussen, van der Zande and six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon were eventually classified fifth – but knew all too clearly that victory had been there for the taking, only for the cruellest of bad fortune to strike.

Kobayashi gets one over Mazda

Behind the top two, there was further nail-biting drama that ended up deciding second place. Once van der Zande was out, Mazda looked set to claim a second consecutive runner-up finish at Daytona, despite losing three laps on Saturday when its car was forced to start from the pitlane when first gear refused to select. British drivers Oliver Jarvis, Harry Tincknell and American Jonathan Bomarito put in a remarkable comeback and returned to the lead lap in the 22^nd hour thanks to a full course yellow, then threatened to take the lead.

In the circumstances, another second place would have been special. But ex-F1 driver Kamui Kobayashi snatched the place with just four minutes on the clock in the Ally Cadillac Racing entry he shared with seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, IndyCar ace Simon Pagenaud and German Mike Rockenfeller. The Mazda trio still had a podium finish to their name, but with a little more pace in that final hour so much more had been in their sights.

Corvette stars in GTLM’s final Daytona

In the GTLM class (known as GTE at Le Mans and in the World Endurance Championship), there was further joy for the Taylor family as Ricky’s brother Jordan delivered Corvette a class win in the C8.R he shared with Antonio Garcia and Nicky Catsburg.

The yellow mid-engined Corvette headed its sister car driven by Briton Nick Tandy in his first race for the American manufacturer following his switch from Porsche, and his co-drivers Alexander Sims and Tommy Milner. The two Corvettes saw off a valiant challenge from BMW Team RLL’s M8 GTE headed by Brazilian Augusto Farfus, in what has turned out to be the final year for the class at Daytona and in the US IMSA series, which only attracted six entries for the biggest race of the season.

GTD, better known around the world as GT3, will become the lead production-based category next year and featured by far the biggest entry of the five classes at Daytona. Like DPi, the race was hard fought, with the top five cars all finishing on the lead lap. At the head was Winward Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 headed by experienced German Maro Engel, with Raffaele Marciello ensuring a 1-2 for the Three-Pointed Star in the Sun Energy 1 entry.

LMP2 and LMP3 play their part

In LMP2, the order was turned on its head in the final minutes when Tower Motorsport’s ORECA 07 was forced to make a late stop, leaving the way clear for Era Motorsport’s entry to take the spoils and sixth overall. Among its quartet of drivers was long-time American endurance racing convert and proud Scot Ryan Dalziel.

LMP3 has also been included in IMSA for the first time this year and the baby prototype category turned out an entry-boosting seven starters. Riley Motorsport’s Ligier claimed the class win, Spencer Pigot taking the chequered flag a full three laps ahead of his nearest rival.

Compared to the other classes, that sounds tame. But everyone played their part to put on a fantastic show at Daytona this year – just when we needed it the most.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.