(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
The 55th running of the Daytona 24 Hours (Rolex 24), the opening round of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, was made even longer by twelve hours of very cold temperatures, steady rain and 21 caution flags, which combined to make the night hours of the longest endurance sports car race in North America miserable for drivers and crew. The Prototype class, which featured all-new cars this season, was dominated by the three GM supported, "Cadillac" branded DPi-V.R entries. Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Filipe Albuquerque (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi) battled long and hard with the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi driven by brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor, longtime co-driver Max Angelelli (in his final race), and four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, in his first Rolex 24 since his debut here in 2007. With just seven minutes to go, Albuquerque was leading, with Ricky Taylor on his tail. At the end of the long front stretch, leading into the fast left Turn One, Taylor took the No. 10 car low and inside of Albuquerque. When the No. 5 set up for the left turn, Taylor hit the car in the rear, spinning it out. Albuquerque recovered quickly and at the end, finished only 0.671 seconds behind Taylor. The incident was reviewed by IMSA officials who decided to take no action against Taylor (wrong decision, by the way), which did not go down well with Albuquerque. “I don’t race like that, to be hit in the back. He didn’t even wait for me, he just took off,” Albuquerque said. “Clearly I was hit in the back. It was not a clean move. I think everyone saw that.” Even team owner Wayne Taylor was nervous, as TV cameras showed him burying his head in his hands after the No. 5 spun, likely anticipating that it would be a controversial call. Regardless, Jordan Taylor said the win was a “relief. We’ve come close so many times. I’m just proud of my brother. He made it happen today.” Third place went to Marc Goossens, Renger van der Zande and Rene Rast (No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Multimatic/Riley Gibson LM P2). “No one expected us to last for 24 hours,” Goossens said. “That just shows how strong this little team is. Right now we have to look at the big picture.” Check out the scintillating images by longtime Autoextremist contributor and ace lens man John Thawley, who brings you a gallery from the 2017 Rolex 24 here.
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry dominated most of the race in the prototype class.
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
James French, Kyle Masson, Nicholas Boulle and 17-year-old Patricio O’Ward (No. 38 Performance Tech) dominated the Prototype Challenge class, winning by 22 laps. “Twice around the clock, a lot can go wrong,” French said. “And to come here and win it was amazing. But we kept it clean and here we are.”
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller and IndyCar star Sebastien Bourdais (No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT), the same trio that took the class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, won the GTLM class at Daytona. The Ford entry finished three seconds ahead of Patrick Pilet, Dirk Werner and Frederic Makowiecki (No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR) in second place, after 652 laps on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway infield road course. James Calado, Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander (No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE) finished third, and Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller (No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R) finished fourth. The fastest lap by all four of those cars was less that one half-second apart, and the top seven cars in GTLM were all on the lead lap.
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Carlos de Quesada, his son Michael, Jesse Lazare, Daniel Morad and Michael Christensen (No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3) won the GT Daytona class. Christopher Mies, Jules Gounon, Connor De Phillippi and Jeffery Schmidt (No. 29 Land-Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3) finished second, just 0.293 seconds behind the winning Porsche. Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Mario Farnbacher and Adam Christodoulou (No. 33 AMG-Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3) finished third. Coming up next for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, March 15-18.
(Photo by Brian Cleary)
Chip Ganassi, a former race-car driver who is now one of the most successful and innovative race team owners in the world, was honored by the Road Racing Drivers Club with the 2017 Phil Hill Award. RRDC president Bobby Rahal made the presentation at the annual RRDC members' dinner on Jan. 25 prior to the running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the season opener of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The Phil Hill Award has been presented annually since 1993 to the person who the RRDC feels has rendered outstanding service to road racing. The recipient may be a driver, entrant or outstanding member of a sanctioning body. It is named in honor of America’s first Formula 1 World Champion (in 1961), and is not only a tribute to his masterful accomplishments on the race track, it also recognizes his contributions as a great ambassador for the sport. Hill passed away in 2008.
Chip Ganassi has been a fixture in the auto racing industry for more than 30 years. Today his teams include two cars in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, two cars in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, four cars in the Verizon IndyCar Series, two cars in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and two cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship. In 2012, he was was named by Complex Magazine as one of the “50 most influential people in the Auto Industry."
Overall, his teams have won 18 championships and over 180 races, highlighted most recently by an historic win in the GTE Pro class in the team's first trip to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016. As a result, Ganassi is the only owner in history to win the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Rolex 24 At Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
He manages his teams from state-of-the-art race shop facilities in Indianapolis, Ind., and Concord, N.C., with a corporate office in Pittsburgh, Pa. The Duquesne University graduate was formerly part owner of his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates and is a strong supporter of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, to which his teams have donated over half a million dollars.
“Phil Hill represented everything that was great about the American spirit internationally,” said Rahal. “He was the first U.S. Formula 1 champion and multi-time winner of Le Mans. He was a gentleman in the finest sense of the word.
"He was very much a class guy, and he let his driving speak for him. He wasn't a braggart. He just did his thing and he won a lot of races, including Le Mans in the '50s and '60s. He drove for Chaparral, and pretty much did it all.
"We think the Phil Hill Award represents something that's very special in motorsport. And Chip Ganassi clearly lives up to that example. He is indeed a worthy recipient of the Phil Hill Award."
"I want to thank everybody at the RRDC here tonight for giving me this Phil Hill Award," said Ganassi. "The list of past winners includes a number of my friends and and mentors, people like Danny Sullivan, Bill France Jr., Roger Penske, Rick Mears, Hurley Haywood, Scott Pruett and MIke Hull. Oh, wait, Mike Hull didn't get this award, did he? He certainly deserves it," said Ganassi, jokingly, about his longtime friend and Chip Ganassi Racing's Managing Director.