Rolex 24: Castroneves drives Meyer Shank Acura to emotional win

A full-course yellow with 1hr55min remaining was caused by Matt Bell’s AWA LMP3 car dying at Turn 7. Just before, in anticipation of the pitlane being closed, both the Acura teams pitted their cars, Wayne Taylor Racing bringing in Ricky Taylor for a splash and dash and Meyer Shank Racing doing the same for Tom Blomqvist.

MSR then also topped off under the caution, too, pitting with the JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac which saw Richard Westbrook – who had held a 20sec lead before the caution – hand off to Loic Duval. Right behind them, Action Express Racing pitted the #31 and left Mike Conway onboard.

The restart saw Taylor pull away, and while Duval initially jumped Blomqvist, the Briton returned the MSR to restore an Acura 1-2. He wouldn’t let the WTR car go and with 84mins to go, Blomqvist side-drafted the blue-and-black car to sneak past into the lead, leaving Taylor to fend off Duval and Conway. That didn’t last long, Duval replicating Blomqvist’s move by going low on the banking and moving into second place as they dived into the newly renamed Le Mans (formerly Bus Stop) chicane.

However, two laps later, Duval dropped back behind both Taylor and Conway, some 5sec off the lead. He stopped with 68mins to go, the first of the DPi cars to make its penultimate stop. Next time by, Taylor, who’d fallen over three seconds off the lead of Blomqvist, brought the WTR Acura in, and a lap after that, MSR called Blomqvist in and replaced him with Helio Castroneves. The following lap Conway pitted the AXR car and handed over to Pipo Derani, but the latter was temporarily 15sec down…

Castroneves did hold a 5sec advantage at the front but when the charging Duval passed Taylor for second with 55mins remaining, that gap went down to half a second. Then out came the full course yellow again for a spun and stalled GTD Lamborghini.

Just before the restart with just under 30mins to go, Derani and Duval pitted for an extra splash, leaving Castroneves and Taylor up front in the Acuras.

Castroneves just held onto the lead at the restart, and the two Acuras started stretching away from Derani and Duval who held each other up with some side-by-side battling on that first green flag lap.

Castroneves was under severe pressure from Taylor with 15mins to go as they threaded through the GT traffic, but the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner pulled away with seven minutes remaining. That was more a result of Taylor slowing slightly, which allowed Duval to temporarily close up.

But it also spelt the end of the lead battle and Castroneves came home three seconds in front to clinch victory on the 10^th anniversary of MSR’s previous triumph here.

LMP2: DragonSpeed beats Tower in dramatic finale

That yellow with around two hours to go saw DragonSpeed’s 28sec advantage at the front wiped out, so Colton Herta had to keep his head on the restart, for now he had Louis Deletraz in the Tower Motorsport car breathing down his neck, with Mikkel Jensen only four seconds further down in the #52 PR1/ Mathiasen Motorsports entry.

Herta’s lead was only 0.8sec when he stopped with 63mins to go. Tower and PR1 followed suit the next time by, but on new tires Herta pulled a three second lead over Deletraz until the yellow with 50mins to go.

Following the pitstops under caution, Tower got Deletraz out ahead of Herta, with Jensen in third. Racing Team Nederland were now right back in the fight, thanks to Rinus VeeKay unlapping himself from Herta two stints earlier, and the Dutch #29 car would restart with Giedo van der Garde at the wheel.

At the final restart, Herta initially struggled to hold off Jensen, but with his tires up to temperature he pulled away from the PR1 Mathiasen car to set his sights on the Tower car of Deletraz ahead.

With barely 10mins to go, Herta was right in the Tower car’s slipstream and made a seemingly impossible late-brake maneuver into the Le Mans chicane but it worked, and Deletraz went bouncing over the grass.

Soon after that, van de Garde, who had demoted Jensen for third, also managed to dive past the Tower car to slot the Racing Team Nederland car into second, albeit nine seconds behind Herta’s DragonSpeed machine.

Herta held onto the lead without issue to take victory in the car he shared with Pato O'Ward, Devlin DeFrancesco and Eric Lux.

LMP3 saw Felipe Fraga steer Riley Motorsports to victory by one lap over Sean Creech Motorsports and CORE autosport, which got a drive-through penalty for passing under yellow.

GTD Pro: Pfaff Porsche survives contact to win

In GTD Pro, the caution with under two hours remaining came just after the KCMG and Pfaff Motorsports teams had pitted their Porsche 911 GT3 Rs, which had been dueling superbly for the lead. They emerged with Mathieu Jaminet in the Pfaff car ahead of ahead of Laurens Vanthoor in the KCMG machine, but temporarily behind the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 of James Calado.

Under caution, Calado pitted and handed over to Alessandro Pier Guidi.

The yellows also allowed the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F to close up, and following the restart Jack Hawksworth drove the RCF past the Ferrari into third to try and chase the two Porsches who had resumed their duel. Instead, it was Pier Guidi who got back ahead of the luminous Lexus, albeit now 4sec behind the ferocious Pfaff vs KCMG battle, and left Hawksworth behind.

The two lead Porsches had just stopped when the yellows flew again with 50mins remaining which helped ensure they remained ahead of the pursuing Risi Ferrari and VSR Lexus on the restart. In fact, Vasser Sullivan performed a great final stop to get Hawksworth out ahead of Pier Guidi, and following the restart, Hawksworth actually stretched away from the Ferrari.

However, the 488 driver wouldn’t let go of the RC F and with 13mins to go, the scarlet machine moved into third albeit 7sec behind the increasingly fraught battle for the lead between Jaminet and Vanthoor. The KCMG car moved ahead with four minutes remaining after some panel rubbing, but they remained locked together.

On the final lap, Jaminet got back ahead but the pair remained locked together – and then came together at the Le Mans chicane. That sent the KCMG car spinning, costing it second place to the Risi Ferrari, while the Pfaff car of Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr escaped to victory.

GTD: Wright gives Porsche double win

In GTD, Zacharie Robichon and Jan Heylen had together built up a near one-minute lead for the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R before the caution, but of course it dissipated under yellow. However, Heylen maintained his composure on the restart, despite Nicklas Nielsen in the AF Corse Ferrari 488 filling his mirrors, and was able to lock himself into the slipstream of the battling GTD Pro Porsches and ease his margin over the Ferrari to over five seconds.

Behind them, Andy Lally in the Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage ran third – on the lead lap but drifting backward.

Heylen had pulled the Wright car in for his final pitstop when the yellows flew at the 50min mark for Giacomo Altoe spinning and stalling his TR3 Lamborghini Huracan. That ensured Heylen was up front for the restart, still chased by Nielsen’s Ferrari, and Lally’s Magnus Aston Martin.

The lead battle was ruined by AF Corse getting a drive-through penalty for making a pass under yellow, which allowed Lally’s Aston Martin and Scott Andrews in the Gilbert Korthoff Mercedes AMG GT3 into second and third respectively.

That pair had nothing for Heylen however, thus the Wright Motorsports car of Heylen, Robichon, Richard Lietz and Ryan Hardwick clinched Rolex 24 victory.

Race results:

Cla	Class	Num	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Gap
1	DPi	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves Simon Pagenaud	Acura DPi	761
2	DPi	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Alexander Rossi Will Stevens	Acura DPi	761	3.028
3	DPi	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval Ben Keating	Cadillac DPi	761	4.420
4	DPi	31	Pipo Derani Tristan Nunez Mike Conway	Cadillac DPi	761	5.615
5	LMP2	81	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Patricio O'Ward Colton Herta	ORECA LMP2 07	751	10 Laps
6	LMP2	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Murry Dylan Rinus van Kalmthout	ORECA LMP2 07	751	10 Laps
7	LMP2	8	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Pinto Ferdinand Habsburg	ORECA LMP2 07	751	10 Laps
8	LMP2	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker Nicolas Lapierre	ORECA LMP2 07	751	10 Laps
9	LMP2	68	François Heriau Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones René Rast	ORECA LMP2 07	744	17 Laps
10	LMP2	22	Jim McGuire Guy Smith Philip Hanson Will Owen	ORECA LMP2 07	740	21 Laps
11	DPi	48	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson Jose Maria Lopez	Cadillac DPi	739	22 Laps
12	DPi	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Marcus Ericsson Kevin Magnussen	Cadillac DPi	734	27 Laps
13	LMP3	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo Michael Cooper	Ligier JS P320	723	38 Laps
14	DPi	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon Alex Palou	Cadillac DPi	722	39 Laps
15	LMP3	33	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Seb Priaulx Lance Willsey	Ligier JS P320	722	39 Laps
16	LMP3	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz Nic Jönsson	Ligier JS P320	721	40 Laps
17	LMP3	36	Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Rasmus Lindh Gabby Chaves	Ligier JS P320	719	42 Laps
18	LMP2	18	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel Paul-Loup Chatin	ORECA LMP2 07	718	43 Laps
19	GTD PRO	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr	Porsche 911 GT3 R	711	50 Laps
20	GTD PRO	62	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GT3	711	50 Laps
21	GTD PRO	2	Laurens Vanthoor Patrick Pilet Dennis Olsen Alexandre Imperatori	Porsche 911 GT3 R	711	50 Laps
22	GTD PRO	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	Lexus RC F GT3	711	50 Laps
23	GTD PRO	15	Dirk Muller Patrick Assenheimer Austin Cindric	Mercedes-AMG GT3	709	52 Laps
24	GTD	16	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 GT3 R	707	54 Laps
25	GTD	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	707	54 Laps
26	GTD	32	Mike Skeen Guy Cosmo Stevan McAleer Scott Andrews	Mercedes-AMG GT3	707	54 Laps
27	GTD	21	Mann Simon Luis Perez Companc Nicklas Nielsen Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GT3	707	54 Laps
28	GTD	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper	McLaren 720S GT3	705	56 Laps
29	GTD	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Mikael Grenier Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3	699	62 Laps
30	GTD PRO	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	Corvette C8.R GTD	698	63 Laps
31	GTD PRO	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus Jesse Krohn	BMW M4 GT3	698	63 Laps
32	GTD	64	Ted Giovanis Hugh Plumb Matt Plumb Owen Trinkler	Porsche 911 GT3 R	697	64 Laps
33	LMP3	13	Orey Fidani Kuno Wittmer Lars Kern Matthew Bell	Duqueine D08	695	66 Laps
34	GTD	71	Franck Perera LLarena Mateo Paul Maximilian Mikhail Goikhberg	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	692	69 Laps
35	GTD	27	Roman De Angelis Ian James Darren Turner Tom Gamble	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	688	73 Laps
36	LMP3	26	Nolan Siegel Cameron Shields Charles Crews Ugo De	Duqueine D08	681	80 Laps
37	GTD PRO	79	Cooper MacNeil Julien Andlauer Matteo Cairoli Alessio Picariello	Porsche 911 GT3 R	673	88 Laps
38	GTD	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson Nicholas Boulle	Porsche 911 GT3 R	672	89 Laps
39	GTD	19	Bill Sweedler John Megrue Giacomo Altoè Jeff Segal	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	669	92 Laps
40	GTD	98	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Charlie Eastwood Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	667	94 Laps
41	GTD PRO	24	Philipp Eng Marco Wittmann Nick Yelloly Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 GT3	665	96 Laps
42	LMP2	11	Thomas Steven Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	ORECA LMP2 07	663	98 Laps
43	GTD	66	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller Mario Farnbacher	Acura NSX GT3	659	102 Laps
44	GTD	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GT3	652	109 Laps
45	GTD	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand Townsend Bell	Lexus RC F GT3	634	127 Laps
46	GTD PRO	4	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Marco Sorensen	Corvette C8.R GTD	626	135 Laps
47	LMP3	38	Dan Goldburg Hikaru Abe Garett Grist Nicolas Pino	Ligier JS P320	588	173 Laps
48	LMP2	69	John Falb James Allen Luca Ghiotto Tijmen van	ORECA LMP2 07	556	205 Laps
49	GTD	42	Don Yount Benja Hites Jaden Conwright Markus Palttala	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	524	237 Laps
50	GTD PRO	97	Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella Maro Engel Jules Gounon	Mercedes-AMG GT3	487	274 Laps
51	LMP3	7	Mark Kvamme Austin McCusker Trenton Estep Antoine Doquin	Duqueine D08	425	336 Laps
52	GTD PRO	63	Marco Mapelli Andrea Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti Rolf Ineichen	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	400	361 Laps
53	LMP3	6	Efrin Castro Moritz Kranz Ori Ayrton Joel Miller	Duqueine D08	363	398 Laps
54	GTD	39	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Sandy Mitchell Jeff Westphal	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	349	412 Laps
55	LMP2	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer Nico Mueller	ORECA LMP2 07	345	416 Laps
56	GTD	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan Jens Klingmann	BMW M4 GT3	280	481 Laps
57	GTD	59	Lance Bergstein Jon Miller Patrick Gallagher Paul Holton	McLaren 720S GT3	263	498 Laps
58	GTD	28	Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad Linus Lundqvist Maximillian Goetz	Mercedes-AMG GT3	181	580 Laps
59	GTD PRO	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	103	658 Laps
60	GTD	75	Kenny Habul Luca Stolz Raffaele Marciello Fabian Schiller	Mercedes-AMG GT3	101	660 Laps
61	GTD	34	Kyle Washington James Sofronas Jeroen Bleekemolen Klaus Bachler	Porsche 911 GT3 R	88	673 Laps
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