Era Motorsport wins in LMP2, Riley Motorsports makes debut in LMP3
By Jeff Olson
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida. – Filipe Albuquerque suspected that something was wrong with his closest competitor towards the end of the race. Was he right.
Albuquerque looked in the mirrors and listened to his team’s reaction on the radio on Sunday when Renger van der Zande was forced into the pits with a punctured right rear tire 7 minutes, 50 seconds remaining of the race, allowing Albuquerque to sail to victory at the 59th Rolex 24 in Daytona. The historic race opened the 2021 season for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Albuquerque drove No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 DPi to the finish line 4.704 seconds ahead of No. 48 Action Express Racing / Ally Cadillac DPi-VR driven by Kamui Kobayashi. It was Albuquerque’s second Rolex victory in the last four years and Wayne Taylor Racing’s third consecutive Rolex victory.
2021 Rolex 24 in Daytona interim results
WTR joined Chip Ganassi Racing as the only team to score three consecutive wins on the Rolex 24. The Ganassi team faced each other again in 2006-2008.
As van der Zande filled his mirrors during the battle at the end of the 24-hour race, Albuquerque noticed that he carried a heavy load and occasionally took the tires off the track, especially at Bus Stop, a left-right-left chicane that breaks a part of the o back stretch on the superspeedway oval of the Daytona International Speedway, much of which is used on the 3.56 mile course.
“I was always looking in the mirrors,” said Albuquerque. “He was fast. He was faster than me, obviously. But I thought there must be tire problems. Physics says that. When you push hard, something happens. When you get off the line too, something goes wrong . I was not expecting this to happen, obviously, but I was expecting some performance issues (from van der Zande). “
The No. 10 victory, shared with co-drivers Helio Castroneves, Ricky Taylor and Alexander Rossi, was the first on the Rolex 24 for Acura, which went from Team Penske to WTR and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian during the off-season .
It was also the fifth overall Rolex 24 victory for Wayne Taylor Racing, who had already won in 2005, 2017, 2019 and 2020.
This, however, has been made more rewarding by the effort that has been made in it. During a short off-season, the WTR changed manufacturers – moving from Cadillac to Acura – and renewed its line of drivers.
“So much was needed for this,” said Ricky Taylor, who scored the second overall victory of his career at Rolex. “It was definitely a test of confidence and proof of preparation and fulfillment of a plan … We skipped all the off-season tests because the guys needed time to do everything correctly. They know how to win this race. I feel like we were all lucky to be part of it. “
Van der Zande – who has piloted and won the Rolex 24 for WTR for the past two years – put pressure on Albuquerque and sometimes closed abruptly in the final minutes of the race, before cutting the right rear tire of his Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing No. 01 Cadillac DPi-VR on the last of the 12 laps on the Daytona road route.
“He almost overtook me, but then he remained stable for four of the five laps,” said Albuquerque. “He wasn’t really getting in there. I was just counting. ‘One more lap. Another lap in the lead.’ When he blew, we were lucky. But there is no one who has won Daytona or any championship with no luck. “
After Kobayashi (who was also after a third consecutive win on the Rolex 24) and Cadillac No. 48, co-piloted by Jimmie Johnson, Simon Pagenaud and Mike Rockenfeller, was No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda RT24-P shared by Oliver Jarvis , Harry Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito.
Ganassi’s team replaced the tire on car number 01, but – with no time to enter the field – van der Zande and his teammates had to settle for fifth place.
In the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, Paul-Loup Chatin put the finishing touches on the 19,513 second victory of No. 18 Motorsport ORECA LMP2 07 over No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA co-directed by John Farano, Gabriel Aubry, Tim Buret and Matthieu Vaxiviere.
Chatin co-directed No. 18 with Ryan Dalziel, Dwight Merriman and Kyle Tilley.
“It’s incredible,” said Merriman. “I am very proud of the team. It really is a team effort to win in the endurance races, especially when you reach these superlong runs. It is so difficult to win, even if you are good. It requires all aspects of the program to be good.”
Spencer Pigot led the final leg of a three-lap victory in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class at No. 74 of the Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 that he shared with Gar Robinson, Scott Andrews and Oliver Askew. The LMP3 was making its debut at the WeatherTech Championship and the cars ran for 24 hours for the first time.
“It was a very smooth race, to be honest,” said Pigot. “We kind of stayed out of trouble and did our own thing. That was our plan all along. No one knew how reliable these LMP3 cars would be. I don’t think they’ve run such a long race. One thing we knew is that we’d have the best prepared car in the paddock, and I think we’ve shown that today. “
Number 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier co-directed by João Barbosa, Lance Willsey, Wayne Boyd and Yann Clairay finished second in the LMP3 class, followed by the 6th Muehlner Motorsports America Duqueine D08 shared by Moritz Kranz, Laurents Hoerr and Kenton Koch.
The 10th Konica Minolta Acura in DPi, the 8th Tower Motorsport in LMP2 and the Riley Motorsports LMP3 No. 74 scored the most points in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup competition, which pays points at regular junctions of the four endurance races in the WeatherTech championship: the Rolex 24 , Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Advance Auto Parts, Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen and Motul Petit Le Mans.
The WeatherTech championship season resumes from March 17th to 20th with 12 o’clock Sebring at the Sebring International Raceway.