IMSA: Castroneves holds off Taylor to win Rolex 24 for an Acura 1-2

A win for the old guys.

Defending 4-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves drove the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura as part of the winning Rolex 24 team last year, and this year he switched to the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura and held off the #10 Acura of Ricky Taylor to win the Rolex 24 for the 2nd year running.

Taylor had to save fuel and had to fall back 3-seconds from Castroneves in the final 5 minutes; hence, the Wayne Taylor team was denied their 4th straight Rolex 24 victory.

Castroneves shared the #60 Acura with IndyCar driver Simon Pagenaud, Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blonqvist.

“This is incredible! We made history in Daytona!  Let’s go climb a fence,” said Castroneves.

“The team gave me an amazing car, and I had amazing teammates: Tom, Olly, Simon, everyone on our team, our sponsors, Acura and HPD.  What a great race.  It was very tough.  My friend Ricky [Taylor] was right behind and I know his strengths, and I said to myself ‘I never showed him all I know’. I had some things under my sleeve [to use in the final laps].  I never thought I’d be climbing the fence in Daytona, but today I realized that dream.”

The win is the second consecutive Rolex 24 victory for Acura and the ARX-05 prototype, and the first 1-2 finish at Daytona for the manufacturer.  For the Meyer Shank team, the win is their second Rolex 24 triumph, and 10 years to the weekend after their first win here in the 2012 50th running of the event.

“”First of all, what a great day for Acura! HPD does so much work for us and I think it shows in the reliability of these DPi cars,” said a disappointed Taylor.

“We were up against five Cadillacs with just two Acuras, and managed a 1-2 finish. The reliability was amazing and the performance of the engine and the car was flawless. The team executed beautifully, I just didn’t have enough at the end to go and get Helio [Castroneves].

“It’s a little disappointing, but we’ll start working towards Sebring and it’s a really good way to start the year. I’m really proud to have my teammates next to me, they all did an amazing job. And thanks to Konica Minolta, Harrison Contracting and everyone that gives us the opportunity to be here and race these cars.”

Loic Duval brought the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac home 3rd ahead of the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac.

All four DPis exchanged the lead in the closing hours in a frantic race-long battle.

The No. 48 Action Express Cadillac DPi completed the top-five in class but finished 11th overall after losing more than 20 laps due to an accident for Jimmie Johnson.

Colton Herta had a coming together with Louis Deletraz for the lead in LMP2 with 15 minutes to go. A lunge up the inside from Herta into the Le Mans Chicane saw Deletraz take to the grass in avoidance to give the DragonSpeed team the win the IndyCar driver shared with fellow IndyCar drivers Pato O’Ward and Devlin DeFrancesco as well as Eric Lux.

Herta pressured Deletraz hard for laps and showed why he is the best driver on the Andretti Autosport IndyCar team. Having previously won this race driving a BWM in  a GT class, Herta and Deletraz touched side-by-side under braking and Deletraz was forced to bounce over the curbs and rough infield grass – his race ruined.

The late charge by van der Garde claimed second for the #29 Oreca of Racing Team Nederland with the #8 Tower Motorsport Oreca third

WE WON IT!!! pic.twitter.com/7f6CsoUpH8

— Devlin Defrancesco (@DevlinDeFran) January 30, 2022

LMP3 was won comfortably by the #74 Riley/ Robinson Ligier JS P320 of Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga, Kay van Berlo and Michael Cooper ahead of the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport car and the #54 CORE autosport Ligier completing the class podium.

By far the most dramatic finish came in GTD Pro, Matthieu Jaminet with a magnificent defensive (and offensive) drive to the flag taking the flag for the #9 Pfaff Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R with Matt Campbell and Porsche debutant Felipe Nasr sharing the spoils.

A bump-and-run in the GTD Class! #Rolex24 x @Daytona pic.twitter.com/OvJYqnSHmI

— Motorsports on NBC (@MotorsportsNBC) January 30, 2022

WHAT A FINISH IN THE GTD PRO CLASS!@Rolex24Hours x @Daytona x #Rolex24 pic.twitter.com/qKSlt9wDpY

— Motorsports on NBC (@MotorsportsNBC) January 30, 2022

The #62 Risi Ferrari took second courtesy of the last lap clash that pushed Laurens Vanthoor down to third in the hard-charging #2 KCMG Porsche, the Hong Kong-based team putting up a great show in their debut here.

GTD saw another Porsche win, the #16 Wright Motorsport Porsche coming home the winner with Jan Heylen taking the flag in the car he shared with Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Zach Robichon.

The debuting #44 Aston Martin of Magnus Racing was second with the #32 Gilbert Korthoff AMG 3rd in GTD.

Rolex 24 Results