Mother Nature decided that she wanted to get involved in the outcome of the most important endurance race in North America. For the first time in the races history, the 57th Rolex 24 at Daytona had experienced two red flag sessions due to relentless rainfall that started at around 4:30 am local time and didn’t let up. The cars were lined up in the pits for the final two hours of the race, not going anywhere while under red flag conditions. IMSA officially ending the race at 2:24 pm, 11 minutes before the races was scheduled to end.
For the second time in the past three years, the overall win went to No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R with the start studded driving team of two-time Formula 1 World Champion and 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Fernando Alonso, Jordan Taylor, one of team owner Wayne Taylor’s sons, former Formula 1 driver Kamui Kobayashi and 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar PC Champion Renger Van Der Zande.
Cadillac Dpi. Third place went to the driving team of Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor’s brother and Wayne Taylor’s other son, three-time Indy 500 winer Helio Castroneves and 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi in the No. 7 Acura Team Penske Acura Dpi. Canadian drivers, Devlin De Francesco, just 19 years old, and Misha Goikhberg, along with the teammates Tristan Vautier (France) and former Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) finished 5th in their No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac Dpi.
In the GTLM class the team is co-owned by racing legend Bobby Rahal, late night talk show host David Letterman and businessman Michael Lanigan took the class win. Co-drivers Connor De Phillippi, Philipp Eng, Colton Herta and Augusto Farfus took their No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE to the top step of the podium. Second place went to the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina. The final step of the podium went to Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Mathieu Jaminet in their Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR.
For the second year in a row the GTD win went to the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 driven by Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart, Rik Breukers and Rolf Ineichen. Lamborghini had never celebrated a 24 hour win until the GRT team won the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona. The Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 took second place with the driver team of Canadian Daniel Morad, Dries Vanthoor (Belgium), Christopher Mies (Germany) and Ricky Feller (Switzerland). Third place went to the driving team of Townsend Bell, Aaron Telitz, Jeff Segal and Frank Montecalvo in their AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) is celebrating their 50th anniversary season with an unprecedented lineup of 19 manufacturers participating in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Pilot Challenge.
The participating manufacturers include Acura, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mazda, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, Nissan, Porsche and Volkswagen.
The next race in the twelve race IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series is the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring at the Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida on Saturday March 16, 2019.