AUSSIES SUCCEED IN DAYTONA 24 HOUR

Aussies succeed in Daytona 24 Hour – Images: LAT

The thrilling 2021 edition of the Daytona 24 Hour was won by the Wayne Taylor Racing quartet of Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor, Alexander Rossi and Helio Castroneves, while an Aussie took victory in the LMP3 class.

By DAN McCARTHY

Aussie Scott Andrews and his American teammates, current IndyCar driver Oliver Askew, former IndyCar driver Spencer Pigot and Gar Robinson dominated the LMP3 class.

The #74 Riley Motorsports quartet were in a league of their own, in the first half of the race they pulled out a lead of several laps and from then on were able to control the gap out front to take the class win by three laps.

Andrews (who features in the current edition of Auto Action) driving the Ligier JS P320 notably pulled another lap advantage during one of his stints during the night.

Joao Barbosa, Lance Willsey, Wayne Boyd and Yann Clairay finished second in class ahead of Moritz Kranz, Hoerr Laurents, Kenton Koch and Stevan McAleer.

The other four Aussies featured in the GTD class and had a mixed bag of results.

The class was won by Maro Engel, Russell Ward, Indy Dontje and Philip Ellis despite the latter colliding with a Ferrari in the closing hours of the race.

The stewards deemed it to be a racing incident and the #57 Mercedes would go on to claim the class honours.

The first Aussie home in the GTD class was Kenny Habul, he finished only 16.3s of the victory to secure second position with his #75 Mercedes teammates Raffaele Marciello, Luca Stolz and Mikael Grenier.

The next Aussie was sixth in class, Aidan Read driving the #96 BMW alongside young IndyCar sensation Colton Herta, Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley stayed out of trouble and picked up a solid result.

The quartet were only one lap off the class win, highlighting the competitiveness of the GTD class.

Aussie Porsche driver Matt Campbell and his teammates Laurens Vanthoor, Lars Kern and Zacharie Robichon sat in the top five for much of the race, but some late race issues saw the quartet finish well out of contention.

Defending outright race winner Aussie Ryan Briscoe did not greet the finish in the GTD class this year, retiring from the race in the closing laps.

Out front the race was won outright by Albuquerque, Taylor, Rossi and Castroneves handing Wayne Taylor Motorsports its fourth win in the legendary race in five years.

Renger van der Zande looked as if he was going to hand Chip Ganassi Racing a winning return to the DPi class as he quickly caught the leader in the closing laps.

However, with the lead and victory within his grasp, just seven minutes remained when he picked up a right-rear puncture.

This meant that Van der Zande and his teammates, former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen and reigning IndyCar Series winner Scott Dixon finished fifth.

In second position, just 4.7s off the win was the Ally Cadillac Racing machine of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Rockenfeller, Simon Pagenaud and Jimmie Johnson.

The quartet snatched second place off the sole Mazda Motorsports entry with just four laps to go. However, the #55 Mazda trio of Oliver Jarvis, Harry Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito will not be disappointed with a podium, as they came from three laps down to fight for the win.

LMP2 was won by Dwight Merriman, Kyle Tilley, Ryan Dalziel and Paul-Loup Chatin.

In the GTLM category Jordan Taylor, Nick Catsburg and Antonio Garcia took the victory, although the latter was unable to stand on the podium as he tested positive for COVID-19 mid-way through the race and had to leave the venue immediately.

Fortunately for the #3 Corvette trio, Garcia had completed his minimum laps and so Taylor and Catsburg soldiered on to take the win from the fellow factory Corvette squad.

For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the current issue of Auto Action. Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.