Meyer Shank Racing wins Acura duel against Wayne Taylor Racing – Epic Porsche duel in GTD Pro ends in crash
Wayne Taylor Racing’s winning streak at the 24 Hours of Daytona has been snapped: Oliver Jarvis, Tom Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud held off all attacks from the 5 (Vautier/Westbrook/Duval/Keating). (Result 24h Daytona 2022)
Four DPi cars faced off on the final restart: MSR-Acura, WTR-Acura and JDC-Caddy and the Action Express Cadillac 31 (Derani/Nunez/Conway). Loic Duval, who had grabbed the lead just before the final yellow, was pushed to the outside by Luis Felipe “Pipo” Derani exiting the International Horseshoe and dropped out of contention for the win.
Derani, however, was also unable to keep up with the two Acuras, who fought out the victory between themselves, and was ultimately overtaken by Duval. However, the Frenchman was unable to make up for the time lost to the two front runners.
They now settled the victory between themselves. Tom Blomqvist had snatched the lead from Ricky Taylor with a spectacular manoeuvre before the final caution. In the final stint, Helio Castroneves had to defend his lead against Taylor.
For a long time, the US American stayed within a second of the Brazilian, but was never able to seriously attack the four-time Indy 500 winner. Then he lost three seconds in one fell swoop in traffic – Wayne Taylor Racing’s winning streak was snapped.
Team owner Michael Shank celebrated his team’s second victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona since 2012 and the first together with co-owners Jim Meyer and Liberty Media. “Helio’s just got it!” he cheered before climbing the catch fence with Castroneves in his typical manner.
oh wow #Rolex24 pic.twitter.com/LJXTrbRYs4
— Bayu Aji Widyadi R (@bayuajiwr) January 30, 2022
Castroneves, always good for a light-hearted joke, quips, “Hey Ricky, I showed you a few things about the Acura, but just not all of them!” Castroneves and Taylor won the 2021 race together for Wayne Taylor Racing when WTR was fresh from switching from the Cadillac to the Acura. Castroneves had previously driven the Acura for three years at Penske and won the IMSA title in that car in 2020.
Lap record doesn’t help Ganassi
The most notable story of the race was the astonishing unreliability of the Cadillac DPi V.R. The cars, which are actually very proven, had several technical problems in the final year of the DPi category, so in the end only two Caddies made it through without unscheduled stops – the 5.
The fact that those two also got in each other’s way on a restart early in the morning didn’t help either. The 5 receiving a drive-through penalty.
Both Cadillacs did not have the speed of the winning Acuras. It couldn’t have been down to the Balance of Performance, as Ganassi set the fastest laps of the race (see below). So both Caddys tried a splash-&-dash again in the last yellow phase. However, the subsequent sorting of the field took so long that they no longer had any advantage as a result.
Unfortunately, the night got the best of us. 💔
After leading the race with both cars, mechanical issues forced us behind the wall for extended periods of time, thus taking us out of contention. #CadillacRacing // #BEICONIC // #Rolex24 pic.twitter.com/DfGf60yhGF
— Chip Ganassi Racing (@CGRTeams) January 30, 2022
The biggest surprise was the problems of both Ganassi cars. Both the 02 was even back in the lead.
Shortly afterwards, in the early morning, came the end of all hopes. A problem with the fuel pump cost 28 laps, which meant the race was over for the former series winners.
TROUBLE for the four-time #Indy500 winner!@H3lio has a flat tire right after taking the lead. #Rolex24
TV: @USA_Network
Commercial-free: @PeacockTV pic.twitter.com/GvDtC0sqAY— Motorsports on NBC (@MotorsportsNBC) January 29, 2022
The fifth Cadillac also had a lengthy delay. The “all-star car”, the 10, that took four hours.
Colton Herta with lead lap to win
In the meantime, the 8 (Farano/Deletraz/de Andrade/Habsburg; 3rd). The decision was made twelve minutes before the end: Herta braked for the Le Mans chicane on the inside next to Deletraz was level, pushing the Swiss into the grass. Race control looked at the incident but imposed no penalties.
'@ColtonHerta passes FOR THE LEAD in LMP2!@PatricioOWard and the @DragonSpeedLLC team are LOVING IT! #Rolex24 pic.twitter.com/rgUwDZfmOn
— Motorsports on NBC (@MotorsportsNBC) January 30, 2022
“I think the manoeuvre was clean. I was the one on the inside. Two people side by side through the chicane, that’s just not possible. It’s a shame for them that their race ended like that, but things like that can happen,” said Herta. Deletraz dropped back behind Giedo van der Garde in the TDS-Oreca 74 (Robinson/Fraga/van Berlo/Cooper) was the only car on the lead lap at the end and consequently took the win. The LMP3 category was represented by nine cars in its second appearance at the 24 Hours of Daytona, but caused a disproportionate number of incidents.
Tough Porsche battle ends in accident
The class win in the new GTD Pro was settled internally at Porsche. The Porsche 911 GT3 R with its completely new classification (larger air restrictors and more weight) was the measure of all things.
In the final, Mathieu Jaminet in the 2 KCMG Porsche (Vanthoor/Pilet/Olsen/Imperatori) faced off. Both had been fighting hard for the lead before. Jaminet sent Vanthoor into the grass after the latter had previously jostled him slightly out of the way to get alongside him.
The jostling continued after the restart. Both drivers went to the limit of what was allowed. On the last lap they pushed it too far. When both went into the Le Mans chicane side by side, only one could get out – and that was Jaminet. Vanthoor dropped back to third place.
Jaminet’s first reaction: “That was just crazy! I didn’t even realise what happened in those last laps, in those last hours. I was racing for my life in the last two hours! When he passed me, I said to myself, I’m not going to give that away like that!”
Behind the two Porsches, Jack Hawksworth in the 62 Risi-Ferrari (Pier Guidi/Calado/Serra/Rigon; 2nd) were battling. The Italian still took third position, which then became second due to the Porsche collision.
Long sifting in GTD Pro
There was frustration for Mercedes-AMG. In both GTD classes, the cars with the star dominated the action for a long time, but the best vehicles were eliminated. In GTD Pro, the Weathertech-Mercedes 79 Porsche (MacNeil/Andlauer/Cairoli/Picariello; 8th) had to go “behind the wall” twice at the end of the first quarter of the race. This cost about 30 laps, all chances of victory were gone.
Replay of the incident 💥⬇️pic.twitter.com/odYWL3v8VR
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) January 29, 2022
A sunset collision ended the race for two favourites. The 3 finished as the best placed car with an unscheduled delay in sixth place.
And BMW? There wasn’t much to see from the M4 GT3s. Both cars lost the lead lap before the end of the first hour because they had to be repaired at the rear. Problems with tyres, lost diffusers and other setbacks added up.
In the end, the race remained another test event for the M4 GT3, which did not make a mature impression at its US debut. At least M GmbH managed to bring both bolides to the finish in seventh to ninth place at the anniversary celebration and thus collect points for the IMSA overall standings. The Turner-BMW 96 (Foley/Auberlen/Dinan/Klingmann) from the GTD class retired due to diffuser problems.
Porsche also wins GTD category
Porsche also triumphed in the GTD class for Pro-Am driver pairings. The 44 Aston (Potter/Lally/Pumpelly/Adam) finished in second position and ran the entire distance without any problems.
Also going home with a huge result is Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports. The still young team, which celebrated its debut in the IMSA SportsCar Championship only last year at Watkins Glen, can take home a trophy right away at its Daytona debut. The 70 (Iribe/Scharndorff/Millroy/Pepper; 5th) when they ran into left front brake problems while in the lead. According to the team, this was due to contact with an LMP3 car. The repair cost three laps and the dream was over.
After a great performance in the qualifying race, the Crucial-McLaren 12 (Montecalvo/Telitz/Heistand/Bell; 15th) wanted to go around the Ferrari, but decided to go the wrong way. Both cars were badly damaged.
What will be remembered most is the weather. The 60th edition was one of the coldest in history. The temperatures reached zero degrees shortly before sunrise, but then it did not go into the dreaded minus. At the finish line it was twelve degrees Celsius – the warmest moment in the entire race.
The 24 Hours of Daytona marked the start of the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship, and the next round is traditionally the next classic. The 12 Hours of Sebring will take place from 17 to 19 March. On the same weekend, the World Endurance Championship (WEC) will celebrate its season opener with the 1,000-mile race at the same venue.
