Rolex 24: Wayne Taylor Acura wins, heartbreak for Ganassi

The Acura ARX-05 of Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor, Alexander Rossi and Helio Castroneves has delivered Wayne Taylor Racing its fourth win in five years, after the pursuing Ganassi Cadillac blew a tire with seven minutes to go.

The Konica Minolta Acura won by just 4.7sec, beating Action Express Racing’s #48 Cadillac which passed Harry Tincknell’s Mazda with four minutes to go. That said, Mazda performed a miracle to come from three laps down to score a podium finish, but Chip Ganassi Racing was on the flipside of fortune, suffering heartbreak as it picked up a right-rear puncture while Renger van der Zande had the leader in his sights.

In LMP2, Era Motorsport beat Tower Motorsport by Starworks, Corvette Racing scored a 1-2 in GT Le Mans – its first Rolex 24 win since 2016 – while Riley Motorsports took LMP3 honors by three laps, and Winward Racing and Sun Energy 1 scored a 1-2 for the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3.

The final 3 hours

The 22nd hour started dramatically for the #48 Action Express Racing Ally-sponsored Cadillac DPi-V.R which had been running second in Mike Rockenfeller’s hands. Just before he was due for a scheduled pitstop, Rocky suffered a puncture, enforcing a slow in-lap. He handed off to Kamui Kobayashi, but the Japanese driver now had only a nine second margin over the charging Scott Dixon in the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Ricky Taylor, meanwhile took over the leading Wayne Taylor Racing Acura from Filipe Albuquerque and kept a dozen second lead at first. In fourth, Dane Cameron had fallen 10sec behind Dixon at the start of the stint.

Then with 2hr25min to go, with Taylor’s lead over Kobayashi down to 8sec and Dixon less than seven seconds behind that, the Ganassi Cadillac suffered a right-rear puncture. Dixon, being a master of self restraint, cruised gently back to the pits without causing the flapping tire to wreck the rear bodywork or fall off the rim. He emerged from the pits down in fifth, and then stopped again under the yellow – along with all the other Prototypes – to fit the other three fresh tires and to be replaced in the cockpit by Renger van der Zande.

Meyer Shank Racing did the best job in pitlane, boosting Dane Cameron to the front ahead of the other Acura of Taylor, while Mazda Motorsports had jumped Jarvis ahead of Kobayashi’s Cadillac.

At the restart with 2hr08mins to go, Taylor dived down the inside of Cameron at the Bus Stop chicane, and Jarvis and Kobayashi followed him through half a lap later. The Acura, Mazda and Cadillac kept pulling away from Cameron – and covered only by 1.5sec – when the 12th caution flew for debris on the track.

The next restart saw the first three maintain position but van der Zande moved the Ganassi Cadillac past Cameron’s MSR Acura into fourth. By the next stops, Taylor had pulled 3.8sec over Jarvis. They were replaced by their teammates, Filipe Albuquerque and Harry Tincknell respectively.

Ganassi did a fantastic job to get van der Zande out ahead of both Tincknell and Kobayashi, and put him onto the tail of Albuquerque, although the WTR Acura started pulling away, and a charging Tincknell started applying the pressure to the Ganassi Cadillac, while dropping the Ally AXR Cadillac. With 80mins to go, Tincknell duly snagged second and started trying to close the 3sec deficit to Albuquerque.

With an hour to go, the WTR Acura’s lead remained intact and they pitted together with 55mins to go. They emerged with 5sec between them, but both had been jumped by the earlier stopping Cadillacs of van der Zande and Kobayashi. The Japanese driver was filling the mirrors of the Ganassi driver with 40mins to go, the pair of them 4.5sec ahead of Albuquerque who was just about maintaining his 5sec margin over Tincknell.

Van der Zande and Kobayashi made their final stops with 33mins to go, taking on four new tires etc, but Albuquerque only took on two new tires when he and Tincknell made their final stops next time by.

The extra heat in his one-lap-old tires allowed van der Zande to dive past Tincknell for second but he was still five seconds behind leader Albuquerque. However, with 15mins to go, he had shaved the WTR Acura’s lead down to near-nothing, and Albuquerque was having to take some defensive lines into the tighter corners. Then with six minutes to go, another right-rear puncture sent van der Zande limping to the pits, eventually to emerge in fifth.

Kobayashi had gained a second wind in the final stint and passed Tincknell for second place, and while the Mazda driver fought back, he came up 1.8sec short. Nonetheless, from three laps down, it had been a remarkable performance by the RT24-P drivers. Meyer Shank Racing’s Juan Pablo Montoya came home 50sec further adrift.

LMP2 suddenly became very interesting with 2.5 hours to go, Ryan Dalziel’s Era Motorsport entry holding just a 5sec margin over Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Tower Motorsport car. This pair ran three laps ahead of DragonSpeed’s Eric Lux. Vaxiviere was presented with an ideal chance to close on Dalziel with the Dixon-caused full-course caution. However, Dalziel kept his cool and pulled away to 5sec margin in the dozen minutes between the end of the 11th caution and start of the 12th.

However, at the next restart, Dalziel pitted, allowing Vaxiviere into the class lead – but Vaxiviere was handed a drive-through penalty for jumping the restart, which halved Era Motorsport’s deficit to 45sec. Dalziel went back into the lead when Vaxiviere stopped with 1h24m to go and handed over to Gabriel Aubry, but then Aubry regained preeminence when Dalziel handed the Era car to Paul Loup Chatin.

Then a last gasp splash of fuel for Aubry, allowed Chatin to move into the lead and win the class by 19.5sec.

Riley Motorsports dominated LMP3 in the end, Spencer Pigot driving to the checkered flag three laps ahead of Joao Barbosa in the Sean Creech Motorsport car, while Muehlner Motorsports collected third, a further four laps adrift.

Following the GT Le Mans pitstops with three hours to go, Nicky Catsburg’s lead over Corvette Racing C8.R teammate Alexander Sims had extended to 13sec, and Sims’ margin over Marco Wittman’s #24 BMW M8 had reduced to 12sec. James Calado remained a minute off the class lead in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488.

However, the pitstops under caution saw Catsburg struggling to get the #3 Corvette moving, handing the class lead to Sims, and dopping to fourth behind Alessandro Pier Guidi in the Risi 488 and Augusto Farfus who’d taken over the #24 BMW. Catsburg’s day went from bad to worse as the car was assisted while outside its pitbox and thus he served a drive-through penalty, while Farfus passed Pier Guidi for second.

The 12th caution, caused by AF Corse’s Daniel Serra dragging debris onto the track, allowed Catsburg to close back up to the top three, but still not within striking distance of the Risi Ferrari.

At the restart, Farfus made his move and edged ahead of Sims and into the lead, but the Corvette driver wouldn’t let him go and slipped past into the lead at Turn 3, while Catsburg had also moved up to third ahead of Pier Guidi.

The penultimate pitstops saw Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner replace Catsburg and Sims respectively, Taylor getting the #3 in front by stopping earlier and getting on fresh tires earlier. However, both of them emerged behind Farfus in the #24 BMW.

The C8.R drafted around the outside of the M8 along the pitstraight with 68mins to go and Taylor took the lead but Farfus remained within a second going into the final hour, the pair of them 6sec ahead of Milner who was 38sec up on the Risi Ferrari.

Milner had a far shorter final stop than Taylor and Farfus and moved the #4 car marginally ahead of its sister car, but the pair were battling for second – behind the off-sequence Ferrari – with less than 40mins to go. Taylor got ahead six minutes later but couldn’t escape. With 20mins to go, Pier Guidi made his final stop and emerged in fourth, leaving Taylor with a 1.5sec lead over Milner who in turn had nine seconds over Farfus.

The GT Daytona battle with three hours to go had distilled into a Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3 fight between Maro Engel of Winward Racing and Luca Stolz in the Sun Energy1 machine, with Engel edging away.

Behind them, the battle between Klaus Bachler in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R and Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan was equally intriguing but 50sec adrift of the leaders.

Following the 11th caution with little more than two hours to go, Raffaele Marciello briefly jumped the SunEnergy1 Mercedes ahead of Engel, bu the Winward Racing machine didn’t take long to reestablish itself in front, while behind them Bachler’s Wright Porsche and Andrea Caldarelli now in the PMR Lambo continued their battle for third. The briefer 12th caution period gave Caldarelli a change to close up, and once he got ahead of Bachler, the Huracan pulled away rapidly.

The next round of stops saw Marciello emerge behind Caldarelli but the Mercedes got back in front although both had to survive trips through the grass at the Bus Stop, which allowed the Wright Porsche, now driven by Jan Heylen, to close in.

Going into the final hour, Engel’s margin over Marciello was 2.5sec, with Caldarelli six seconds back and Heylen another four seconds in arrears. Then Marciello and Heylen stopped with 52mins to go. Ross Gunn in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage also stopped at the same time, and having stopped far more recently off-sequence, he was stopped for a shorter amount of time and emerged within 10sec of the Wright Porsche.

However, Winward Racing got Engel out swiftly when he made his final stop, and he commenced the 48min run to the flag with a 10sec lead over the similar Sun Energy1 car of Marciello. He in turn had 7sec over Caldarelli who now only had two seconds in hand over Heylen, but over the final stint these four separated again, and Engel won the class by 16.3sec over Marciellow, with Caldarelli third, 10sec ahead of the Wright Porsche.

ClaClassNumDriverChassisLapsGapRetirementPits
1DPi10 Ricky Taylor
Filipe Albuquerque
Alexander Rossi
Helio Castroneves
Acura DPi807  31
2DPi48 Jimmie Johnson
Kamui Kobayashi
Simon Pagenaud
Mike Rockenfeller
Cadillac DPi807  32
3DPi55 Oliver Jarvis
Harry Tincknell
Jonathan Bomarito
Mazda DPi807  31
4DPi60 Dane Cameron
Olivier Pla
Juan Pablo Montoya
A.J. Allmendinger
Acura DPi807  30
5DPi01 Renger van der Zande
Kevin Magnussen
Scott Dixon
Cadillac DPi807  36
6LMP218 Dwight Merriman
Kyle Tilley
Ryan Dalziel
Paul-Loup Chatin
ORECA LMP2 07787  31
7LMP28 John Farano
Gabriel Aubry
Timothé Buret
Matthieu Vaxiviere
ORECA LMP2 07787  30
8DPi31 Felipe Nasr
Mike Conway
Pipo Derani
Chase Elliott
Cadillac DPi783  34
9LMP282 Eric Lux
Devlin DeFrancesco
Fabian Schiller
Christopher Mies
ORECA LMP2 07783  36
10LMP251 Cody Ware
Salih Yoluc
Austin Dillon
Sven Muller
Ligier LMP2778  29
11GTLM3 Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor
Nick Catsburg
Corvette C8.R770  23
12GTLM4 Tommy Milner
Nick Tandy
Alexander Sims
Corvette C8.R770  22
13GTLM24 John Edwards
Jesse Krohn
Augusto Farfus
Marco Wittmann
BMW M8 GTE769  23
14GTLM62 James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi
Jules Gounon
Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE769  24
15GTLM25 Connor de Phillippi
Philipp Eng
Timo Glock
Bruno Spengler
BMW M8 GTE768  23
16LMP211 Thomas Steven
Tristan Nunez
Thomas Merrill
Matthew Bell
ORECA LMP2 07764  32
17GTLM79 Cooper MacNeil
Kevin Estre
Richard Lietz
Gianmaria Bruni
Porsche 911 RSR – 19760  21
18LMP374 Gar Robinson
Spencer Pigot
Scott Andrews
Oliver Askew
Ligier JS P320757  23
19LMP333 Lance Willsey
Joao Barbosa
Wayne Boyd
Yann Clairay
Ligier JS P320754  23
20LMP36 Moritz Kranz
Hoerr Laurents
Kenton Koch
Stevan McAleer
Duqueine D08750  23
21LMP391 Jim Cox
Dylan Murry
Austin McCusker
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Ligier JS P320746  22
22GTD57 Russell Ward
Philip Ellis
Indy Dontje
Maro Engel
Mercedes-AMG GT3745  22
23GTD75 Kenny Habul
Raffaele Marciello
Mikael Grenier
Luca Stolz
Mercedes-AMG GT3745  21
24GTD1 Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow
Corey Lewis
Andrea Caldarelli
Lamborghini Huracan GT3745  24
25GTD16 Trent Hindman
Patrick Long
Jan Heylen
Klaus Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R745  23
26GTD23 Ian James
Roman De Angelis
Darren Turner
Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage GT3745  21
27GTD96 Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley
Aidan Read
Colton Herta
BMW M6 GT3744  24
28GTD97 Maxwell Root
Charles Eastwood
Ben Keating
Richard Westbrook
Aston Martin Vantage GT3744  19
29GTD21 Simon Mann
Nicklas Nielsen
Daniel Serra
Matteo Cressoni
Ferrari 488 GT3743  22
30GTD28 Daniel Morad
Michael de Quesada
Billy Johnson
Maximilian Buhk
Mercedes-AMG GT3741  20
31LMP354 Jon Bennett
George Kurtz
Colin Braun
Matt McMurry
Ligier JS P320737  24
32GTD88 Rob Ferriol
Earl Bamber
Katherine Legge
Christina Nielsen
Porsche 911 GT3 R737  24
33GTD44 John Potter
Andy Lally
Spencer Pumpelly
Mario Farnbacher
Acura NSX GT3736  23
34DPi5 Tristan Vautier
Loic Duval
Sébastien Bourdais
Cadillac DPi723  29
35LMP247 Roberto Lacorte
Antonio Fuoco
Andrea Belicchi
Giorgio Sernagiotto
Dallara LMP2710  26
36GTD9 Zacharie Robichon
Laurens Vanthoor
Lars Kern
Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 GT3 R702  23
37LMP338 Rasmus Lindh
Cameron Cassels
Mateo Llarena
Ayrton Ori
Ligier JS P320687  21
38GTD12 Robert Megennis
Zach Veach
Townsend Bell
Frankie Montecalvo
Lexus RC F GT3681  18
39GTD63 Ed Jones
Bret Curtis
Ryan Briscoe
Marcos Gomes
Ferrari 488 GT3676  20
40GTD42 Alan Metni
Andrew Davis
J.R. Hildebrand
Don Yount
Audi R8 LMS GT3665  22
41LMP252 Ben Keating
Mikkel Jensen
Scott Huffaker
Nicolas Lapierre
ORECA LMP2 07664  26
42GTD14 Aaron Telitz
Oliver Gavin
Kyle Kirkwood
Jack Hawksworth
Lexus RC F GT3641  22
43GTD64 Ted Giovanis
Owen Trinkler
Hugh Plumb
Matt Plumb
Porsche 911 GT3 R515  15
44LMP37 Mark Kvamme
Ryan Norman
Gabby Chaves
Charles Finelli
Duqueine D08413  14
45GTD111 Rolf Ineichen
Mirko Bortolotti
Steijn Schothorst
Marco Mapelli
Lamborghini Huracan GT3347  7
46GTD19 Mikhail Goikhberg
Franck Perera
Albert Costa
Tim Zimmermann
Lamborghini Huracan GT3195  1
47LMP229 Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Job Van Uitert
Charles Milesi
ORECA LMP2 0764   
48LMP220 Dennis Andersen
Ferdinand Habsburg
Anders Fjordbach
Robert Kubica
ORECA LMP2 0756   
49LMP281 Rob Hodes
Garett Grist
Rinus van Kalmthout
Ben Hanley
ORECA LMP2 0753   
View full results


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