Courtesy of IMSA News Wire

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Porsche added to its legendary sports car endurance racing record Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, where Porsche Penske Motorsport rolled to its second consecutive overall victory in IMSA’s 2025 season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Porsche Penske Motorsport gave a strong indication that it’s ready to defend its FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar class title with with an impressive 1-3 finish in the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening event in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Courtesy photo

The No. 7 Porsche 963 driven by Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor claimed the overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class wins for team-owner Roger Penske, who celebrated his organization’s third overall victory in the 63^rd edition of America’s endurance racing classic.

Nasr crossed the finish line of Daytona International Speedway’s famed 3.56-mile tri-oval in the No. 7 Porsche 1.335-seconds ahead of Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 he shared with Colin Braun, Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist. Braun, a 36-year-old native of Ovalo, Texas, is the 2014 and 2015 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype Challenge Champion.

The No. 6 Porsche featuring a driver lineup of Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Kevin Estre finished third, 4.423-seconds back after what evolved into a 24-hour sprint.

Blomqvist passed Campbell for second with just over four minutes remaining, denying Porsche its first 1-2 overall finish at the Rolex 24 since 1987, when the German marque’s iconic 962 model swept the first six places. Porsche Motorsport now has scored overall victory at Daytona on 24 occasions.

The modern iteration of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP class with its hybrid-powered Prototypes is proving to be as compelling as the legendary original, which ran from 1981 to ‘93. The Porsche 962 claimed overall victory at the Rolex 24 five times during that period.

The Porsche 963 could be on its way to compiling a similar record. The No. 7 car made the trip to Daytona’s Victory Lane for the second consecutive year, on the heels of Nasr and Dane Cameron winning the GTP class championship in 2024.

“Winning the championship last year was just the start of it,” said Penske, 87, whose motorsports empire includes Team Penske, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, INDYCAR and a lengthy list of auto racing-related businesses. “This Porsche car we have has just been amazing, and to think we did it two years in a row is a credit to all the people from Porsche in Germany and our team here. We’re truly one organization.”

Nasr qualified the No. 7 Porsche third-fastest and took the lead for the first time midway through the third hour. Meanwhile, the No. 6 moved up quickly after starting 10th. Once they reached the point, the Penske Porsches stamped their authority on the event, leading 517 of the 781 laps completed.

The No. 7 ran out front through most of the night before the No. 6 took command, leading a total of 210 laps to pace the field into the final hour. Nasr lined up in third place for what turned out to be the final restart of a race that produced 14 caution periods. He pushed the No. 7 past Dries Vanthoor (younger brother of Laurens) in the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 with 38 minutes to go.

A furious battle between the two Porsches ensued until the 20-minute mark, when Nasr slipped past Campbell in the No. 6 at the Le Mans Chicane to take the lead. Campbell fought hard before finally conceding the position, causing some discomfort on the timing stand for Penske, aka “The Captain.”

“We had talked to the drivers about not racing each other, but obviously these guys are racers,” Penske said. “Fortunately, we didn’t get into trouble.”

Nasr said that electing to take four Michelin tires during the final pit stop was an important factor in the No. 7 car’s win. The No. 6 had a faster final stop to maintain the lead, but Campbell was unable to match Nasr’s pace down the stretch. Nasr now owns the last two overall Rolex 24 wins and a Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class triumph in 2022.

“It’s always hard to know what it’s going to end up like, but that’s what I love about the IMSA racing,” said Nasr, a 32-year-old native of Brazil. “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.”

Meanwhile, Sunday’s victory helped Tandy secure an unprecedented grand slam in endurance racing, with 24-hour overall race wins at Daytona, Le Mans in France, Germany’s Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

“Records never really dawned on me until Laurens and I won at Spa in 2020 (in a GT-class Porsche),” said Tandy, a 40-year-old native of Great Britain who also boasts a GT Le Mans class victory in the 2014 Rolex 24. “Since that day, it’s definitely something I wanted to check off the list. To be the first person ever to do something is quite unbelievable, really.

“Winning Daytona alone anyway is a massive standalone event and I’m very proud to be sat here again. Just winning one of those races overall would be an incredible career, so to get four, along with a few (Motul Petit Le Mans) at Road Atlanta and a few (Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of) Sebrings, is dream-come-true stuff.”

Without Campbell as a buffer, Nasr had to watch his mirrors over the closing three laps. But Blomqvist was unable to get his Acura close enough to launch an attack.

“We kind of struggled to be honest, especially with our rear tires and traction,” said Blomqvist, the 2022 and 2023 Rolex 24 winner. “At one point we thought it was going to be a real long day.

“For the last stint, the car was just better _ not much to say, really. I didn’t think I was going to have anything for them, but you never give up, right? I gave it all I had and I think that was the best we could have done today. The Porsches were really strong.”

Nine of the 12 entries in the GTP class were running at the end of the 24 hours, with three on the lead lap. The pole-winning No. 24 BMW claimed fourth, while the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R rounded out the top-five.

The No. 10 Cadillac _ shared by drivers Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Will Stevens and Brendon Hartley _ led General Motors’ three-car contingent among the 12 GTP entries. The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R and No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R were eliminated from contention in the first half of the twice-around-the-clock event. The Cadillac GTPs, powered by GM’s 5.5-liter DOHC V8 engine, led a combined 99 laps.

“What a tough day in the office. A long race,” said Albuquerque, a 39-year-old native of Portugal. “During the night actually the car was pretty decent, pretty nice and competitive, but we missed something. I mean, it’s our first race with Cadillac, learning the car. We seemed to miss the setup for the daytime; it was hard to drive, very hard to drive. We did what we could. I don’t think it’s that bad to finish P5 with what we had, so it’s what it is. So, we’ll learn and move on.”

Round 2 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the 73rd running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, set for March 12-15 at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

Tower Motorsports found itself atop the pylon at the end of a competitive, chaotic and dramatic Rolex 24 at Daytona within the 12-car Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class full of ORECA LMP2 07 cars.

The quartet of Sebastien Bourdais, John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez and Job Van Uitert shared the winning No. 8 ORECA, emerging almost clear of trouble while contenders rose and fell like the temperatures over the 24-hour classic.

Three such challengers dropped out in the eighth hour when Louis Deletraz’s No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R spun and came back on-course exiting Turn 2. The resulting contact eliminated the No. 2 United Autosports USA and No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECAs, while despite incurring damage the No. 8 Tower car kept going.

By the halfway point, it appeared the second United entry, the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 22 car, along with defending class champions Inter Europol Competition’s No. 43 car and AO Racing’s “Spike” No. 99 car were set to challenge. Penalties took the No. 22 and 43 down the order and heartbreak befell the No. 99 once the final couple hours unfolded.

AO’s No. 99 car, with Christian Rasmussen driving, dropped out of the fight with just over 80 minutes remaining. The car pitted with a low battery warning and the team diagnosed the issue under the rear deck lid, losing several laps and ending “Spike’s” victory charge. This car led a race-high 280 of 765 laps.

Era Motorsport, then, appeared in position to repeat its 2024 win with an adjusted lineup in its No. 18 ORECA, courtesy of a strategic move to take fuel only on its final stop before the last 40 minutes. Those hopes went away when Mathias Beche’s No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ car hit Paul-Loup Chatin’s No. 18 Era car into a spin at Turn 1. Beche’s No. 52 car was assessed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

That promoted the Tower car, which kept enough relative momentum alive to stay in contention, back to the lead. Frenchman Bourdais added his third Rolex 24 win, first in LMP2 to pair with a Prototype and overall win in 2014 and a GT Le Mans win with Ford in 2017. His trio of teammates _ Farano, Alvarez and Van Uitert _ all secured their first victories and combined to lead 118 laps.

Bourdais admitted post-race that the rough-and-tumble affair extended to his co-driver Farano, who fought through back pain to keep driving and complete his stints.

“I was part of ‘the big one,’ big-time,” said Bourdais, a 45-year-old native of Le Mans. “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.’^”

Bourdais notched his second straight IMSA win, albeit in a very different driving situation. With the end of the Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing program in GTP after the 2024 Motul Petit Le Mans season-finale, Bourdais shifted into the highly competitive LMP2 class to remain in the IMSA paddock.

“It’s almost like it was awarded to us in some respect because it seemed for a minute that nobody wanted to win it,” Bourdais said with a laugh. “I’ve rarely seen someone torpedo another car like Beche did with Paul-Loup. It was just one incident like this after another in front of us or behind us or around us.

“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. Personally, it’s my third but it never gets old winning.”

Despite setbacks throughout, the No. 22 United car rebounded to a runner-up finish, courtesy of pole-sitter Daniel Goldburg sharing the car with Paul Di Resta, Rasmus Lindh and James Allen. That car finished 44.697-seconds behind the Tower car.

Riley completed the podium with its No. 74 LMP2 entry, co-driven by Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson, Josh Burdon and Felipe Massa.

The No. 7 Porsche led IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup points in GTP and the No. 8 Tower and No. 22 United ORECAs were tied for first in LMP2.

In a battle of iconic American Muscle Cars, Dennis Olsen drove the Ford Multimatic Motorsports No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 to the new model’s first global victory, besting Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class.

Both Grand Touring classes of competition ultimately were decided by less than two-seconds after 24 grueling, eventful hours around Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile/12-turn combination of high banks and traditional road-course winding turns.

While Ford celebrated in Victory Lane in the 15-car GTD PRO class, Corvette Racing was victorious in the 22-car GTD class with British driver Matthew Bell wheeling the No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R to the win by 1.454-seconds over the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).

The so-called “Detroit Special” in the GTD PRO class _ featuring Ford and Chevrolet in a dramatic trophy duel during the closing minutes of competition _ was not only significant for Ford’s new GT3 brand but also a sentimental victory between the two longtime OEMs.

While it marked Ford’s 20th victory in the race, it was the first for the Mustang GT3 model introduced in 2024. The winning No. 65 Ford’s sister car _ the pole-sitting No. 64 Mustang _ completed the GTD PRO podium.

“I think it is quite historical,” said Belgian driver Frederic Vervisch, who shared the car with Norwegian Olsen and German Christopher Mies. “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.”

At no point was there an odds-on favorite to hoist the trophy. There were 10 different race leaders in the GTD PRO class, with the winning No. 65 Mustang taking the lead for good on a final restart with only 42 minutes remaining.

Olsen got a little breathing room in those last laps as the No. 3 Corvette driven by Sims _ a 36-year-old native of London _ was forced to fend off Englishman Sebastian Priaulx in the other Ford. Olsen conceded after the race that the speed of both the Corvettes and BMWs was a huge concern.

“Right at the end for the last few hours, things really chopped and changed a lot for everyone in the field, really. But our Corvettes were working really well,” Sims said. “We maybe didn’t have the pace overnight, but during the day things really came to us and we had the lap time. It was just a little bit difficult to race in a pack with a couple of the other manufacturer cars who were particularly fast on the straights and weaker in the corners, which is where we made our lap times.

“Honestly, from where things looked like a few hours from the end, second is pretty good. But when you’re fighting super-close for the win, you can’t help as a sportsman to feel disappointed not to get the win. Here we had a near-flawless race. Our Corvette held up really, really well. The whole team did a fantastic job to execute so much of the race so well. It was a good start for the year.”

The fourth-place finishing No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW also was in the mix _ leading nine times for 187 of the race’s 723 laps _ ultimately being spun from a podium finish by the No. 4 Corvette and driver Nico Varrone with less than 12 minutes remaining.

Only an hour earlier, the No. 1 BMW’s sister team, the No. 48, was penalized for impeding the Corvettes move forward and their fight for the lead. Out of competition for the win since a multi-car accident late Saturday night, the No. 48 BMW was 55 laps off-pace but raced the Corvette hard ultimately causing an “off” by the No. 4 Z06 GT3.R that drew a penalty from IMSA.

Another all-star GTD PRO entry _ fielded in part by NASCAR team-owner Justin Marks _ was the No. 91 Trackhouse Racing by TF Sport Corvette featuring NASCAR stars Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch, INDYCAR’s Scott McLaughlin and IMSA veteran Ben Keating. It finished ninth in class after a comeback drive to get near the podium with a little more than an hour remaining.

“It’s been so much fun bringing Trackhouse to IMSA and getting to run the Rolex 24 with this team,” said the 18-year-old Zilisch, who sought to defend his 2024 Rolex 24 win in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). “All my teammates were a blast to be with and also to hang out with off the track. I had a lot to learn and I’m very grateful I got to race with these guys and learn from them. Frustrated with how the race ended, but looking back on the last two weeks, I had so much fun.”

Finishing behind the class-winning No. 13 AWA Corvette in GTD were the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. AWA, which also won the Rolex 24 in Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) in 2023, added a fifth win for a Corvette Racing-affiliated team to the Rolex 24.

Corvette driver Bell admittedly was emotional with his first victory in the famous race. As with the GTD PRO class, the final laps and closing minutes were both dramatic and challenging.

“It means absolutely everything to me and this team,” said Bell, who co-drove with Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Marvin Kirchhoefer. “The minute the checkered flag flew at Petit Le Mans (2024 season-finale), it’s been 24/7 putting a car together to win the Rolex 24. The Porsches gave us quite a run and I give it to the competition for that.”

Asked about the race-winning move, taking the lead with 10 laps remaining, Bell joked and smiled, “I don’t remember a damn thing.’’ Co-driver Kirchhoefer conceded it was a competitive field, but the team also insisted the GTD class kept things a little cleaner than the GTD PRO class.

“It was quite intense in every category especially the 30 minutes after a restart,” Kirchhoefer said. “We know restarts are crucial in an IMSA race and what the fans love to see, which can be nice or sometimes not nice.

“The emotions were running very high, and you can tell how much it meant to the whole team. Everyone was super-super happy for the result. For the fans, for everyone I think it was kind of the best race finish you could ask for.”

The remainder of NBC Sports’ 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule (all times Eastern):

Saturday, March 15 _ Twelve Hours of Sebring, Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway (Peacock, 10 a.m.)

Saturday, April 12 _ Grand Prix of Long Beach, Long Beach Street Circuit (USA Network, Peacock, 5 p.m.)

Sunday, May 11 _ IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship of Monterey (Calif.), WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (NBC, Peacock, 3 p.m.)

Saturday, May 31 _ Detroit Grand Prix, Detroit Street Circuit (Peacock, 3:30 p.m.)

Sunday, June 22 _ Six Hours of The Glen, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International Road-Course (NBC, Peacock, 12 p.m.)

Sunday, July 13 _ Chevrolet Grand Prix, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Bowmanville, Ontario (USA Network, Peacock, 2 p.m.)

Sunday, Aug. 3 _ Sports Car Weekend, Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis. (Peacock, 2 p.m.)

Sunday, Aug. 24 _ GT Challenge at VIR, Virginia International Raceway, Alton, Va. (USA Network, Peacock, 2 p.m.)

Sunday, Sept. 21 _ Battle on the Bricks, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (NBC, Peacock, 11:30 a.m.)

Saturday, Oct. 11 _ Petit Le Mans, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Braselton, Ga. (NBC, Peacock, 12 p.m.)

Note _ Platforms and race start times are subject to change.