James, Roman de Angelis, Marco Sorensen and Darren Turner claimed an impressive victory in the 23-car GTD class in the 61st running of the Rolex 24 aboard their #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3, enjoying a virtually clean race barring a brief power reset in the morning hours.
They led a 1-2 for the British marque ahead of the Magnus Racing entry shared by John Potter, Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly and Nicki Thiim, delivering Aston a first victory in the Florida classic in 12 attempts.
But the result was also significant because the #27 crew beat all 10 GTD Pro runners, finishing over two seconds clear of the class-winning #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Maro Engel, Jules Gounon, Dani Juncadella and Cooper MacNeil.
Following the triumph, 48-year-old James hailed the Seattle-based team for its performance, having been impressed by the job it has done to beat all-professional crews and finish highest among all GTD entrants.
Asked what it meant to beat the entire GTD Pro field, James said: “I think it's just an extra cherry on the cake.
“Obviously that's not the most important thing, but obviously having me part of the line-up, going against all those pro guys and still coming out on top, just is a testament to what these guys did and how hard and how well they drove and how well the team is.
“I used to look up with admiration and I still do to the likes of Corvette Racing and all that, and to go toe to toe with them and beat them is a huge accomplishment.”
Heart of Racing's #23 car of Alex Riberas, Ross Gunn and David Pittard was also looking strong to win the GTD Pro class until suffering a rare wheel hub failure that dropped them to a distant seventh in class.
Since the demise of the GTE-based GT Le Mans category from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2021, the series has had two separate categories for GT3 cars.
The GTD Pro division caters to professional drivers and allows entries from factory teams such as Corvette, while the standard GTD division mandates at least one bronze or silver-rated driver in the line-up and also has limitations on the number of platinum drivers.
With the two classes staying mixed up throughout the Rolex 24, including in qualifying, some onlookers see the distinction between GTD Pro and GTD as unnecessary and believe they could be merged into one single category.
However, WeatherTech Racing’s Engel believes GTD and GTD Pro should continue to function as separate classes for the benefit of the spectacle, although he admitted that the last-hour contact with Sorensen’s GTD car left him ‘frustrated.”
“For you guys I guess it adds to the excitement,” said the factory Mercedes driver. “For us, obviously when you're fighting a GTD car for track position and you get run off the road like I did, it's pretty frustrating because it's just unnecessary.
“But at the end of the day, I think if you look at the show, of this race and of this series, it always delivers. I guess that's the bottom line. And if it's good for the show, then we have to run it that way.”
