Rolex 24 Recap - Winners, Losers and Program Builders

Us race fans are in the Golden Age in a multitude of different ways, and leading the charge for the IMSA enjoyers across the globe is the fact that the Rolex 24 at Daytona continues to blossom and balloon into one of the best racing spectacles anywhere on the planet. 

The season opener for 2025 delivered in dozens of ways. The racing itself was spectacular, the liveries on track were top-notch, the talent pool of drivers unmatched in recent years, the fan experience at the track was fantastic - list anything out and you can say the whole weekend was a banger start to finish - except for the painful experience of watching on Peacock and having to deal with those piss ant ads. Oh and the No. 40 crashing out, that sucked too, especially after Kamui Kobayashi was going Super Sayan all over everyone's asses. 

Save from that, we were treated to not just one of the best races at the Rolex in recent memory, but one of the best motorsport races of any series in recent memory. 

Let's dive into the recap, which we'll be handling a bit different this season than last year. 

GTP Drivers of the Day - Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr, Laurens Vanthoor

You can't not put the overall race winners as the top drivers of the day, right? It was a masterclass performance for the Porsche Penske Motorsport trio, highlighted by Felipe Nasr's final stint in the last hours of the race that saw him not only hold off the No. 24 BMW before it ultimately succumbed to its injuries, but also that hard-charging Tom Blomqvist in his return to the No. 60 Meyer Shank machine as well as his program-mate in Matty Campbell in the No. 6. This marks the second-straight win for the No. 7 Porsche 963 at Daytona and saw Tandy complete the now-created 'Tandy Slam' across the other three major 24-hour enduros across the globe. Fans can hate on it all they want, and trust me no one was pulling harder for the No. 24 than I was, but the Penske program demands excellence from the top of the food chain all the way down to the guy running tires back and forth on the pit wall, and following multiple championships spread between IMSA and the WEC last season it is clear that PPM are still the team to beat for 2025.

Rolex winners again - the No. 7 PPM

The Most Disappointing Casualty of War of the Day - No. 40 WTR Cadillac

If things had gone a different way there's no doubt in my mind that the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac was primed to compete for a race win. The contact that occurred off the restart from a yellow that collected multiple cars was such a bummer to see happen, but seeing the No. 40 bow out after just 245 laps was especially disappointing because it robbed us of seeing Kamui Kobayashi fully strut his stuff behind the wheel in a GTP rocket ship. Of all the race retirements that went down this one was truly ass, there's no other way to slice it.

 

Team of the Day - AWA Racing 

What an unbelievable achievement for a team that had arguably the rockiest start a program could ever hope not to have last season. The Canadian-based outfit were tabbed as the first customer-backed teams not named Pratt Miller Motorsports to run a pair of brand new Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, talk about pressure right? Let's take you back to the OPENING SECONDS OF THE ROLEX 24 FORMATION LAP - remember when the No. 13 died RIGHT ON PIT LANE? And the crew had to jump over the pit wall to push it back to the box and figure out what the hell was going on? Much to their credit they did get the car fired up but were already laps down before the race had even begun. And who could forget that the sister car No. 17, headed by Anthony Mantella, DIPPED OUT OF THE SERIES AFTER TWO RACES before Mantella put up the Z06 GT3.R for sale with one of the most passive-aggressive listing's you'll ever see.

What a brutal way to start your season

Left to develop their ride with just the No. 13 leftover, the best AWA managed to secure in terms of results on the track was a P5 finish at Road America and ultimately finished P9 in the GTD standings. Well goddamn what a difference a year makes. With a banging new livery and a revamped focus, the foursome of Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Marvin Kirchhöfer delivered an amazing performance to not only survive the carnage that was 21 total DNFs across the 24 hours of action, but to also be the last man standing in such a deep field of talent and just 1.4 seconds ahead of the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche. Congrats fellas!

AWA represent! 

The 'Big For the Program' Moment of the Race - Ford Wins GTD Pro

What a HUUUUUUUUUGE day for The Program! Ford Multimatic Motorsports were hot shit all weekend, which started with their front row lockout in qualifying with the No. 64 starting on pole and the No. 65 P2. That pace continued into race day with both Mustangs running at the lead of the pack for essentially the entirety of the 24-hours. Don't quote me officially but it sure felt like the two 'Stangs never fell out of the top seven in GTD Pro save for pit stop interchanges. The end result was a double-podium finish to the tune of the No. 65 securing the maiden victory for the car while the No. 64 captured P3. You have to give a ton of credit to Ford for not just bringing about the Mustang GT3 and racing it for shits and giggles around the block, but for also establishing a legitimate racing pyramid that is led by a clear vision - world domination - and the Mustang GT3 is their weapon of choice. Global Motorsports Director Mark Rushbrook has stated publicly that Ford has the goal of placing GT3s in series all across the globe - IMSA, the WEC, Bathurst, DTM, SRO, you name it and Ford wants to put a customer-backed team on the grid. Couple that with the recently-announced LMDh program that is now official and what we have is a real Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker situation where, if they do this thing right, the two Ford machines could be in line to rule the galaxy with backing from the Emperor himself (Ford HQ). After a shaky start to the life of the machine last year we're off to a rocket-boosted Chapter 1 in 2025 and we're all here for it. 

If you don't like the noise of the Mustang GT3 screaming down the banks of Daytona then you can get the hell out 

LMP2 Moment of the Day - Just About Everyone Had A Chance To Win This Race

It was both comical and painful to see so many LMP2 teams fight their way to the front of the pack just to see their chances of winning go up in flames. First we had the No. 88 AF Corse succumbing to a gearbox fatality that wiped out the near-40 second lead they had built up with just under two hours to go. Then it was Spike and AO Racing that found itself running at the front before a nasty electrical gremlin attacked during their last pit stop and forced them into a prolonged delay in the box and an eventual laps-down deficit. THEN the No. 18 Era Motorsports machine clipped the No. 52 and PR1/Mathiasen which resulted in damage to the No. 52 and a drive-through penalty for the No. 18. The shuffling of just about everyone left on the lead lap resulted in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports inheriting the lead just ahead of the No. 22 of United Autosports....and we all know now how things turned out post-race.

ALWAYS race through the finish line - you never know what can happen!

Moment of the Race - Tommy Milner Flips off Paul Miller BMW

Maybe the easiest Moment of the Race we'll ever have in 2025. There are specific moments in life that when they happen you can instantaneously understand the weight and significance of said moment as its playing out in real time; one of those instances came in the form of Tommy Milner flipping the bird to the No. 48 Paul Miller BMW driven by Augusto Farfus. In his comments after jumping out of the No. 4 Pratt Miller Corvette, Milner pointed the finger (hahahah) moreso at Paul Miller BMW for the unsportsmanlike team orders he felt were handed out rather than at Farfus himself. Even still, the image is one that will be repeated for years to come and perfectly exemplifies how so many of us feel when we get super pissed off at Person X, whether it's going 150mph down the race track or when parked at a red light and some douchebag takes the left around you. 

An image that will live in infamy from henceforth 

Kick In the Balls of the Day - No. 120 Wright Motorsports and Terrible Timing 

The No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche ran into a terrible bit of timing when a full-course caution was deployed right at the second they entered pit lane, resulting in a drive-through penalty that had to be served and when the dust settled saw them drop drop to P9 in class. Elliott Skeer put the car on pole and the whole squad of Adam Adelson, Ayhancan Güven, and Tom 'Don't Call Me Logan' Sargent raced their assess off and were in prime position to win the race going up against the No. 13, the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes and the Heart of Racing No. 27. Again, the car was QUICK all day long and Güven battled all the way back to P2 in the closing moments, ultimately falling just 1.4 seconds short behind AWA. This won't be the last time we see that glorious paint scheme fighting for wins this season.

The No. 120 was RIGHT THEREEE

Livery of the Day - Bartone Bros. with GetSpeed No. 69 Pirate Ship

Talk about a badass-lookin' livery. I had plenty of rooting interests in this event but above all the others was me not-so-quietly pulling HARDDDDD for the No. 69 Pirate Ship to come out on top in GTD Pro. Still, finishing P5 in that stacked of a field is an amazing accomplishment for a team that is small in comparison to the Ford, Corvette and Wayne Taylor cars of the world. The Pirate Ship livery was absolutely badass and DESERVED to be class winners. Imagine how sick that would have been?

The 'This Isn't Last Year's (or the Year Before That) BMW Moment of the Day - BMW Team RLL

In all four classes you had dozens of teams that all had a legitimate shot at winning the 24, and maybe no team feels more conflicted about their end result than BMW Team RLL. Both the No. 24 and No. 25 ran capital 'S' Strong throughout the race and there were moments of 'oh my god could they actually pull this thing off?' going down all the weekend. It started when Dries Vanthoor set the pace and put the No. 24 on pole position and after 24 hours of racing both BMWs were the only GTPs to set a personal-best lap time under 1:36.000. They had the pace and more importantly they had the reliability of not dying on track (although the No. 25 had an issue during qualifying) and that is the most promising thing to pull out of Team RLLs day at the track. Just days before the Rolex BMW confirmed that they had implemented the first Joker EVO in the car's lifespan, although BMW would only confirm that the upgrade focused on the braking mechanisms and wouldn't elaborate if other elements of the car were addressed. This is a hugely important season for the M Hybrid V8, and although they came up short of the race victory and a podium finish, the weekend proved that this car can compete with the best in class and that is something good to build on.

*sad noises*

The 'You Gotta Be Kidding Me' Moment of the Day - SC63 retires after 34 laps

With so much pressure on the Lamborghini SC63 to deliver in 2025, their Rolex debut was something to forget. An overheating issue tanked the 3.8L turbo V8 after just 34 laps and forced the car behind the wall and back to the garage. The issue wasn't repairable and the Squadra Corsa crew was left to throw in the towel on the rest of day. The SC63 is being supported by Riley Motorsports in 2025 and it'll need all the help it can get when it comes to getting to the bottom of what makes this car so unreliable when on track (this marks the sixth retirement in 13 races between IMSA and the WEC). With the news that Lamborghini is hoping to secure customer-backed teams to run the car in 2026 and beyond it's a hard sell to anyone to take this kind of project on unless there's some assurance that the car can withstand the challenges of racing - something that's kind of important for race cars.

If you blinked you might've missed the SC63 out on track

The GTP Privateer Team of the Day - JDC-Miller Motorsports 

Give it up to the Banana Boat - they saw the checkered flag and finished just one lap down from the leaders to finish P6 overall. The No. 5 Proton Porsche had less luck on the day as they dealt with a handful of penalties and an ultimate suspension failure after 352 completed laps. We're still waiting for that first privateer GTP victory in IMSA and I truly feel we're getting closer and closer to seeing it happen.

Keep the faith - we'll see that first privateer GTP win soon

Farewell (For Now) of the Day - Magnus Racing Bites the Dust Early In their Daytona Finale

It's not goodbye, it's see you later...right?! In what could be their final race as an operation for quite a while, Magnus Racing did not have Lady Luck on their side as their Vantage died on track after 170 laps completed to what Magnus labeled as "a giant hole" in the engine. It ended their chances of going out on top with a class victory and it also served as Andy Lally's last race in IMSA as he makes the transition over to be the new president of the Trans-Am series. There were some rumors in the paddock that Magnus could jump in to run the Michelin Endurance rounds in 2025 before hopefully making a return for a full-season effort in 2026 as team owner John Potter pulls back to focus on his other business/real estate ventures. It stinks we couldn't see the No. 44 challenge for the win come the end of things.

So there you have it - the first recap of the season. Stay tuned as we prepare for the opening round of the World Endurance Championship in late February and then the 12 Hours of Sebring let's gooooo.

(all photos via MotorSportMediaHub.com)