A brand-new season of the United SportsCar Championship commenced this weekend at the Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida as the lights went green for the 53rd Rolex 24 at Daytona. The victory went to the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Target/Ford EcoBoost Riley DP driven by Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Jamie McMurray, and Kyle Larson. The Ford EcoBoost-powered car completed 740 laps and covered 2,634 miles. That’s 45 laps more than last year’s winner, a statement to this year’s incredible pace at Daytona, in spite of 18 cautions, two more than in 2014.
Chip Ganassi Racing came on top after a three-way battle with Action Express Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing, with both Chevrolet Corvette DP racers finishing within the same lap. Action Express’ Sebastien Bourdais crossed the finish line 1.3 seconds behind the No. 02 Ganassi car, with Wayle Taylor Racing’s Corvette DP a minute behind in third. The next Prototype car, also a Chevrolet Corvette DP, came in six laps behind the winner.
The battle for the Prototype Challenge class was less enticing this year, with the only event occurring toward the end of the race. After leading the PC pack for most of the race, the No. 54 CORE Autosport Oreca FLM09 was forced to retire after hitting a wall due to damaged suspension. The car caught on fire on its 704th lap, handing over the lead to PR1/Mathiesen Motorsports (Oreca FLM09). The latter went on to win the class ten laps later, with BAR1 Motorsports (Oreca FLM09) taking second place.
Moving over to the GTLM class, it was the No. 3 Corvette Racing who took the checkered flag ahead of the No. 25 BMW Team RLL, while also scoring an impressive 5th place overall. The Corvette C7.R of Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Ryan Briscoe completed 725 laps, with the BMW Z4 GTLM of Bill Auberlen, Dirk Werner, Augusto Farfus and Bruno Spengler crossing the line only a half second behind. Third place went to the No. 4 Corvette and fourth to the No. 24 BMW. Porsche North America and Aston Martin Racing had to settle for fifth and sixth, with less than 650 laps completed.
Lastly, the GTD class saw the No. 93 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R climb atop the Porsches, Ferraris, Audis and Aston Martins. Dominik Farnbacher, Al Carter, Kuno Wittmer, Cameron Lawrence, and Ben Keating completed 704 laps to bring the Snake’s first win after Dodge decided to axe the Viper motorsport program in late 2014. Second and third place went to the Porsche 911 GT Americas ran by Alex Job Racing and Wright Motorsports with 704 and 702 laps, respectively. AF Corse and its No. 49 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 finished fourth, while Paul Miller Racing’s No. 48 Audi R8 LMS crossed the line in fifth.
Click past the jump to read more about the 2015 24 Hours of Daytona.
24 Hours of Daytona - Race Report originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 27 January 2015 19:00 EST.
Source: http://feeds.topspeed.com/~r/topspeed/~3/xBmgjcpieoY/24-hours-of-daytonarace-report-ar167354.html
Alfonso de Portago Sam Posey Charles Pozzi Jackie Pretorius Ernesto Prinoth
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