Felip Nasr and the No. 7 Porsche Penske Capture the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona
January 25th-26th (Daytona, Fl.)
The 2025 Rolex 24 at Daytona saw the Porsche Penske Motorsport team and their Porsche 963 No. 7 back in a familiar spot, the winners circle for the second consecutive year. Not only is the team back to back champions in the GTP class, for the manufacturer this win represented the twentieth checkered flag they have captured.
While it may seem like Porsche Penske had a lock on the race, in typical endurance racing fashion there were no sure things until the very end. The pole winning Team RLL BMW M hybrid V8 No. 24 from sun up was hounding the eventual race winners. With pole winning driver Dries Vanthoor behind the wheel and chasing the Porsche through traffic unfortunately he made contact with the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by James Calado.
Another on track incident brought out a full course caution flag giving the BMW squad a chance to check the car over before beginning the battle again. When the race went green again, with less than one lap complete smoke came billowing out from the front of the BMW. With the car having to come back into the pits under a green flag for a new front nose and front tires, this took them out of contention for the win.
Meanwhile at the restart the No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 driven by Matt Cambell had grabbed the lead and was doing all he could to hold off Felip Nasr and his No. 7 Porsche 963. With twenty two minutes to go in the race Nasr wouldn’t be denied another Rolex watch and made the pass on the No. 6 Porsche.
With the Race looking like a Porsche one two finish, Tom Blomqvist in the Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 Acura ARX-06 snuck back into contention. With five minutes left in the race Blomqvist pulled off a pass on the No. 6 Porsche Penske car to grab second place in the race.
It wasn’t easy for the No. 60 Acura to nab second. At the sixteenth hour of the race Felix Rosenqvist brushed up against a wall incurring right-front nose damage and of course the subsequent pit stop needed to replace the front bodywork. Before Blomqvists final stint in the car, team mate Scott Dixon was assessed a drive through penalty for speeding on the pit lane. But Blomqvist was able to overcome all of this to get the team back to the podium.
After the race, Felip Nasr went on to say, “It’s always hard to know what it’s going to end up like, but that’s what I love about the IMSA racing, I felt like I had the pace to go forward, and that’s what I did. The clock was running, so I had to go for it. I could see that the Acura was coming quick behind us, so we had to go. I made a clean pass (on Campbell), and that was it. I wanted to win this race for sure, and I wanted to win for the team; on a personal level, doing it back-to-back is incredible,”
The LMP2 class was as winning driver Sebastien Bourdais would say “a total rollercoaster”. The rough and tumble race saw competitors chances rise and fall from either mechanical gremlins or the inevitable accidents. But in the end the Tower Motorsports squad and their No. 08 Oreca were able to grab the win in class.
The teams journey to the top step of the podium wasn’t assured. At the eight hour mark of the race Louis Deletraz’s spun his No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R coming out of turn two. The location of the spin couldn’t have been in any worse spot. As teams coming through the turn had no opportunity to avoid it. The crash took out the No. 2 United Autosports USA and No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports teams. The race winning Tower Motorsports Team were also caught up in the carnage sustaining some damage to their bodywork.
After the race Bourdais would explain “I was part of the big one, big time. The car over my left fender, a car over my right fender and I don’t think I had time to back off because I made contact because I was in the gearbox of the Pratt Miller car and it all came to a stop. It was like ‘Days of Thunder.’ “Yeah, honestly, when it all cleared in front of me and the car still had four wheels on it and the steering wheel was straight, I was like, man, this is just a miracle.”
AO Racings No. 99 “Spike” led a race high 280 of 765 laps in the race and was consistently in the mix of front runners. But with eighty minutes to go in the race, a low battery light came on the cars dash forcing the team to take an extended pit stop to fix the fault and ending the teams chances at a win.
ERA Motorsports in the No. 18 Oreca were beginning to look like they would repeat their 2024 class win in the race, but the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports made contact with the ERA squad in turn one spinning the car out ending the team’s chances. Penalties took the pole winning No. 22 United Autosports team out of contention as well as 2024 class winners Europol Competition No. 43.
Through it all the Tower Motorsports team was able to claw their way back into the mix. When the ERA squad was spun, Bourdais and his teammates in the No. 08 Tower car were able to capitalize and take the class win. The No. 22 United Autosports team overcame the earlier penalties to finish in the runner-up spot. Rounding out the podium was the No. 74 Riley Motorsports.
At the post-race press conference Sebastien Bourdais told everyone “It was a weird race, but we had hopes at times. Sometimes it felt like it was a bit hopeless, and to come out on top no matter how you got there at some point, it’s just one of those races where nobody remembers how you got there, and personally it’s my third, but it never gets old winning. I’m really happy that we could bring the result for John who’s been running after that Rolex for a little while.”
While the GTDPro and GTD classes are chock full of manufacturers from around the world that are fully capable of winning the race, this year’s event was a battles of American marquees. The race ultimately came down to a Ford versus Chevrolet battle. The Ford Multimatic Motorsports No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 and the Pratt Miller Motorsports No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R had a fierce duel in the last thirty minutes of the race with the Ford coming out on top for the class win.
This win would be Ford’s twentieth at the Daytona classic. Yet for the Ford Multimatic program and the Mustang GT3, this would be the teams very first win as the program was launched just one year earlier. In addition to the win the teams sister car the No. 64 Mustang grabbed third place showing how far they have come in the development of the Mustang.
As for Second place that went to the Pratt Miller Motorsports No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. During the final restart of the race, the No. 65 Mustang pulled off the perfect restart and grabbed the lead from the Pratt Miller No. 4 Corvette. With the Ford now in the lead, the No. 3 Corvette was hot on his tail.
Meanwhile behind the race leaders The No. 4 Covette was in a heated battle with the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. Ultimately though there was contact between the BMW and the Corvette with the eventual fourth place BMW being spun out. This allowed the No. 64 Mustang to move up into third place and do battle with the No. 3 Corvette in second place. The ensuing battle between the two cars allowed enough breathing room for the No. 65 Mustang to grab its first victory.
After the race winning driver Frederic Vervisch said, “Yesterday we met (Ford CEO) Jim Farley and he said, ‘Whatever you do, you have to be in front of Chevrolet.’ He was joking, of course. They were extremely strong and so super proud to be ahead and perhaps out-strategize them.”
While it might have seemed with Ford winning and in third place that they were dominant in the whole race but that wasn’t the case. There were ten different leaders throughout the race. Notable teams that were caught up in incidents include fan favorite Rexy the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. The team was running strong until a late race collision took the team out of contention as was also the case with Pfaff Motorsports and their No. 9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.
GTD class saw the AWA No. 13 Corvette grab the top step on the podium. The pole sitting No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche team took second place in class.
As the sun rose on Daytona International Speedway the AWA Corvette was in a commanding position and looked to be in for an easy victory. With two hours to go in the race a caution bunched the field up taking away the lead the team had built. On the ensuing restart if it could go wrong it did. Not only did the pole winning Wright Motorsports No. 120 Porsche grabbed the lead, but the AWA Corvette was knocked down to fourth place as the Wayne Taylor No. 45 Lamborghini and No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG got past them as well.
With an hour to go in the race the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Lamborghini had its suspension fail. This caused a caution flag. When the pits opened, the No. 120 Porsche and the No. 57 Mercedes dove into the pits to grab fuel. But the No. 13 Corvette stayed out taking the lead. Staying with them was the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.
The Corvette and the Aston Martin had a fierce duel with the two squads swapping the lead multiple times with the Corvette grabbing the lead for the final time with ten minutes left in the race. With the two cars engaged in their fight, this allowed the No. 120 Wright Motorsports squad to get back into the fray with the team passing the Aston Martin to grab second place.
IMSA:
Daytona International Speedway: