How Castroneves and Meyer Shank conquered another US classic

Acura made it two wins from two starts in the Daytona 24 Hours since the end of its relationship with Team Penske. This time, however, it wasn’t the serial winner of the big race, Wayne Taylor Racing, that came out on top last Sunday. Rather, Meyer Shank Racing prevailed over a team bidding for a fourth straight victory in a 30-minute sprint to the flag with IndyCar legend Helio Castroneves at the wheel of its ARX-05 Daytona Prototype international.

The Brazilian, who shared the #60 ARX-05 with Oliver Jarvis, Tom Blomqvist and Simon Pagenaud, had both track position and the faster of the two Acuras when the race went green for the final time. Ricky Taylor in the WTR entry had little or nothing for his former team-mate over the final laps of the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship season-opener. 

The Shank Acura, which led more of the 761 laps than any other car over the course of the 60th running of the Daytona enduro, had made it back to the front in the hands of Blomqvist late in the penultimate hour. He quickly pulled a four-second gap on Taylor, who fell back to third behind Loic Duval in the JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R. The 17th safety car of the race, called with 50 minutes left on the clock, then set up the traditional Daytona dash.  

Blomqvist was replaced in the Shank car by Castroneves, part of the winning Daytona line-up at WTR last year and Taylor’s team-mate during the Penske years of the DPi programme in 2018-20. Blomqvist, making his debut in the 24 Hours, reckoned he was “cooked” and also needed to relieve himself: “I was busting for a wee the last two hours. That didn’t make it very easy.”

Castroneves wasn’t given a new set of Michelin control tyres during the stops, while Taylor took fresh rubber on the left side only of the car he shared with Filipe Albuquerque, Alexander Rossi and Will Stevens. The WTR driver had a look at the race leader into Turn 1 away from the restart, but that was as close as he got.

After Blomqvist surged back into the lead, Castroneves wasn't challenged on the final run to the flag

Photo by: Chris duMond / Motorsport Images

When push came to shove over those final laps, the Shank car was simply faster. Temperatures were finally rising at one of the coldest Daytonas in years: temperatures in mid-Florida fell to a 10-year low during the night. At that time the WTR car was the quicker of the two ARX-05s, but as the mercury started to creep up the balance swung the other way. Michael Shank, whose team reprised its 2012 victory at Daytona, admitted that there wasn’t any magic in its method.

“As the sun came up and the track ambient with it, we just got better,” he said. “It wasn’t by design, but it worked out good for us. We were lucky to have the car really there when we needed it.” 

He was happy to admit that the WTR car was the quicker of the two Acuras in the night when temperatures were not far off freezing. It had been the plan of the four-time race-winning team to have a car that was at its best during the hours of darkness.

Duval was unable to make the most of the advantage that his new tyres should have given him. He struggled to get past Derani cleanly: he tried around the outside of the first hairpin straight after the restart and ended up being pushed wide onto the dirt. It was probably one of the defining moments of the race

“We set the car up for a cold race and it was unbelievable in the night,” explained Taylor. “The #60 came alive there at the end; I just didn’t have enough for Tom or then Helio.”

Taylor was insistent that neither his Acura nor the Shank car was fastest around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway on anything more than the odd occasion. He reckoned that honour was held by different Cadillacs at different times over the 24 Hours: “One of them would always be faster than us pretty much all the time.”

That honour as the clocked ticked down was held by the JDC-Miller Caddy DPi-V.R in which Duval joined full-season drivers Richard Westbrook and Tristan Vautier, and amateur Ben Keating, who completed his mandatory minimum of two hours early in the race. Late on Sunday morning, IMSA returnee – and DPi debutant – Westbrook propelled the car into a lead of just under 20s. 

The team opted to double-stint the tyres, which paid dividends. Tyre warmers are not permitted in IMSA and there was time to be gained in the early laps after a stop on old but warm rubber. There was a trade-off over the final laps of the run, but JDC-Miller and Westbrook made it work.

“I was hanging on at the end there on the tyres, but there was definitely a net gain,” said Westbrook of the gamble in the 20th hour. “It was the right call at that time.”

JDC-Miller Cadillac lost crucial track position in the closing stages

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Westbrook had been the first of the frontrunners to pit and, on rubber that was already up to temperature, he quickly built up a lead, first over Mike Conway in the lead Action Express Caddy, and continued to eke out his advantage once Albuquerque got up into second aboard the WTR Acura. But the buffer disappeared at the penultimate safety car with an hour and 50 minutes to go. 

The two Acuras anticipated the yellow flags and got in and out of the pits for short stops just before the race was neutralised, and then made their full stops once everyone had slowed behind the course vehicle. That gave them track position for the all-important closing stages. This was the moment when Cadillac’s bid to return to Victory Lane in a race it had won four years in a row after the arrival of the DPi-V.R in 2017 disappeared. 

Duval, who took over from Westbrook at this point, did briefly make it up into second ahead of Taylor, only to drop back down to fourth in traffic. He made it back to second after the next round of stops, and was just three seconds down on Blomqvist when the final safety car was called. 

The two Caddys, which both made a second stop during the final yellow to top up their fuel load, were third and fourth in the queue behind the Acuras, Duval behind Pipo Derani. Duval, however, was the only one of the top four who had four new tyres under him for the run to the flag: Derani, like Castroneves, was on old rubber. 

The problem for Duval was that he was unable to make the most of the advantage that this should have given him. He struggled to get past Derani cleanly: he tried around the outside of the first hairpin straight after the restart and ended up being pushed wide onto the dirt. It was probably one of the defining moments of the race because, by the time he did make it past six laps later, the Acuras were already away up the road. 

“If you’d offered me a podium at the start of the week, I would have taken it,” said Westbrook. “It’s a bit frustrating to get that close and miss out, but you shouldn’t forget that we’re first Caddy home ahead of much bigger teams. It shows we can compete and bodes well for the championship.”

The Action car Derani shared with Conway and Tristan Nunez wasn’t the competitive proposition on Sunday morning that it had been earlier. The car’s performance then took another turn for the worse after the restart, one that its driver didn’t fully understand.

“The pace wasn’t there at the end,” said the Brazilian. “We need to analyse why.”

Both the Ganassi Cadillacs were delayed and didn't factor in the final battle

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

The trio of Caddys that weren’t part of the final shootout finished down the field after various delays, but all three had the pace to win. The two Chip Ganassi Racing DPi-V.Rs – now entered under the Cadillac Racing banner – led more than 200 laps between them, but ended up 12th and 14th. 

The #01 Ganassi car shared by Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon and Alex Palou was the first to hit trouble at the end of hour 13. A failed alternator resulted in more than 40 laps disappearing with its replacement back in the garage. 

Kevin Magnussen, fitting in the first of two Ganassi outings before he takes up his seat with the Peugeot World Endurance Championship team, had built up a half-minute lead on Sunday morning in the entry he shared with Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Marcus Ericsson, only to drop back to fourth with a fuel pressure issue. The car had to go onto its reserve pump, which then failed in hour 17. That meant another Ganassi car had to go ‘behind the wall’ for repairs that weren’t quite so lengthy as on the sister car.

A total of 23 laps disappeared before the car Johnson shared with Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Rockenfeller returned to the track to finish 11th

“You’re always disappointed when performance and results don’t cross over,” said CGR managing director Mike Hull. “Everything on this programme came together late ahead of last season, but we raced right through the year without a fuel pump or an alternator issue.”

Jimmie Johnson’s bid to add a Daytona 24 victory to his pair in the 500 NASCAR blue-riband was derailed in the 13th hour when he made contact with a slower car. The second Action Express car, which is contesting only the four IMSA enduros this year, needed extensive work on a damaged rear corner, as well as to the diffuser and the underfloor. A total of 23 laps disappeared before the car he shared with Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Rockenfeller returned to the track to finish 11th.

It was definitely a case of what might have been for Cadillac as its crew watched on while Castroneves decided it was time to climb the fence to mimic his traditional Indy 500 celebration.

MSR Acura drivers joined Castroneves for his now traditional fence-climb

Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images

DragonSpeed and Riley prevail in LMP2 and LMP3

DragonSpeed, winner of the LMP2 class at Daytona in 2019 and 2020, bounced back from a horrendous start to the 24 Hours to make it three wins in four years with IndyCar drivers Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward and Devlin DeFrancesco, plus Eric Lux. 

The American entrant’s ORECA-Gibson 07 was in and out of the pits five times in the opening couple of hours. The car was hit by a series of penalties, including multiple pitlane speeding infractions as a result of an incorrectly set limiter.

It dropped as much as three laps off the lead, but the wave-by rules allowed the car to gain back the lost ground. By hour four, it was back on the lead lap, though it would take until the 12th hour for the car to lead the race, albeit for just a single lap. It would, however, lead another 204 before it took the chequered flag. 

There was one final twist. Herta was jumped in the pits at the final stop by the Tower Motorsport ORECA with Louis Deletraz at the wheel. Herta had the measure of a driver who was in fuel-save mode to reach the finish and made it past with just under 15 minutes left at the Le Mans Chicane.

When Herta lunged down the inside, Deletraz tried to hang it out on the outside, but ended up on the grass. The time lost for the car he shared with Ferdinand Habsburg, Rui Andrade and John Farano dropped it to third behind the TDS-run Racing Team Nederland ORECA of Giedo van der Garde, Rinus VeeKay, Dylan Murry and Frits van Eerd. 

LMP3 honours went to Riley Motorsports for a second year in a row. Its Ligier-Nissan JSP320 shared by Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson, Kay van Berlo and Michael Cooper was a minute and a half clear after a run to 13th overall interrupted only by a puncture during the night.

DragonSpeed fought back from several laps down with Herta's late pass on Deletraz

Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images

Porsche sweep GT classes amid dramatic GTD climax

A thrilling GT Daytona Pro battle between the Pfaff Motorsport and KCMG Porsches came to a dramatic climax on the final lap. The two cars – Mathieu Jaminet in the Pfaff car, Laurens Vanthoor aboard KCMG’s entry – came together after running nose to tail for the better part of three hours.

There’d been a series of minor clashes over the last few laps, Vanthoor getting ahead three laps from home, only to lose out at the first hairpin on the final lap. The KCMG man then made a bid on the outside into the newly renamed Le Mans Chicane, nee the Bus Stop. Both Porsche drivers left their braking ultra-late and neither made the corner. Vanthoor was four wheels off and Jaminet two when they touched and the outcome of the race was decided. 

Vanthoor spun, but Jaminet held it together in the 911 GT3-R he shared with Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr to take honours in the first running of the new category for GT3 machinery that has replaced the GTE-based GT Le Mans division. Vanthoor, who was teamed with Patrick Pilet, Dennis Olsen and Alexandre Imperatori, dropped to third behind the chasing Risi Competizione Ferrari with Alessandro Pier Guidi at the wheel.

The two Porsches led all but eight laps between them over the final six hours after the other contenders in class dropped by the wayside

“I braked very late and he was braking later than me, so I knew it was not going to work,” said Jaminet. “We both tried to make the corner, but couldn’t.”

Vanthoor admitted he’d cried on the way back to the pits after failing to add to his overall wins at the Spa and the Nurburging 24-hour races and class victory at Le Mans.

“I did everything I could to make this happen,” said the Belgian. “I’ll definitely replay the scenes from the last laps in my mind for a long time.”

Pfaff vs KCMG battle raged for much of the race and was only decided on the final lap

Photo by: Porsche Motorsport

The two Porsches led all but eight laps between them over the final six hours after the other contenders in class dropped by the wayside. The Ferrari 488 GTE Evo that Pier Guidi shared with James Calado, Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon was probably the fastest car during the night when the cool conditions suited its turbo engine, but its challenge waned as the temperatures rose.

The Vasser Sullivan Pro class Lexus RC F GT3 took fourth in the hands of Brits Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth, plus Kyle Kirkwood. They had a clean run interrupted only by a couple of penalties.

The Wright Motorsports Porsche squad owed its victory in the GT Daytona pro-am class to a similar run. Its 911 GT3-R finished the race “without so much as a scratch” said Richard Lietz, who shared the winning car with Jan Heylen, Zach Robichon and Ryan Hardwick. 

The GTD victors finished 12.5s up on the Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 shared by Jonny Adam, Andy Lally, John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly.

Wright Motorsports completed a perfect day for Porsche by winning the GTD class

Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images