Meyer Shank Acura wins Daytona 24 for second time in a row

Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud have won the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona for #60 Meyer Shank Acura, the second consecutive time the Meyer Shank team has won the United States’ biggest endurance race.

Blomqvist handled the final stint masterfully, keeping his fellow Acura ruival Filipe Albuquerque, plus a brace of Cadillacs, at bay for well over an hour.

Albuquerque finished second in the #10 Wayne Taylor Acura. The Portuguese driver, along with his teammates Ricky Taylor, Brendon Hartley and Louis Deletraz, came back from being 2 laps down half way through the race, but couldn’t quite do enough to overwhelm Meyer Shank.

The two Chip Gansssi-run factory Cadillacs finished third and fourth, #01, with Renger van der Zande in the car in the final podium position. Earl Bamber crossed the line fourth in the #01 Cadillac. Both van der Zande and Bamber, and their teammates, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon in the #01 and Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook in the #02, ran reliably all race but didn’t quite have the pace to overwhelm the very strong Acuras.

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In fifth was Alexander Sims in the #31 Action Express Cadillac, 12 laps off the finish. Sims and his teammates, Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken, had similar pace to the other two Cadillacs but suspension issues which needed repairing in the garage delayed them.

Sixth was Phillip Eng’s #24 BMW, 16 laps off the winning Acura. The BMWs did not have the pace to truly challenge today, but Eng, along with his teammates Augusto Farfus, Marco Wittmann and Colton Herta, did finish in front of both Porsches.

The #7 Porsche finished 14th overall, 7th in class, with Matt Campbell crossing the line to finish the race. It was delayed by multiple issues in the pits, as did the other Porsche, which was unofficially classified 42nd.

Ninth in GTP was the #25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi, Nick Yelloly, Sheldon van der Linde and Colton Herta. It was delayed early on for more than two hours while hybrid issues related to its MGU was fixed, and eventually finished 48th, 131 laps down.

LMP2 was one by the tightest of margins, 0.016, between James Allen, in the #55 Proton Competition Oreca and Ben Hanley, behind the wheel of the 04 Crowdstrike APR Oreca. Both drivers, as well as their co-drivers – Fred Poordad, Francesco Pizzi, and Gianmaria Bruni in the #55 and George Kurtz, Matt McMurry, and Esteban Guitterz had battled long and hard throught the race, but Allen prevailed in the #55 Oreca, by passing Hanley on the tri-oval as they approached the line for the final time.

Third in LMP2, was Nicklas Nielsen, and co-drivers Francois Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Julien Canal, in the #88 AF Corse Oreca, just over 5 seconds behind Allen and Hanley, who crossed the line a fraction of a second apart.

Wayne Boyd, Nico Varrone, Thomas Merrill, and Anthony Mantella won LMP3 in the #17 AWA Duqueine, with a margin of 11 laps to their next closest class finisher, the #33 Sean Creech Ligier of Joao Barbosa, Lance Willsey, Nico Pino and Nolan Siegel. In third was John DeAngelis, Christopher Allen, Connor Bloum and Cameron Shields of the #38 Performance Tech Ligier, four laps behind the Sean Creech Ligier.

Marco Sorensen, Roman De Angelis, Ian James, and Darren Turner, of #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, won not just the GTD category, but GT overall, with just over five seconds to their nearest class competitor, the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, with Nicki Thiim, John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly, Andy Lally at the wheel throughout the race. Third in GTD went to the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Brendon Iribe, Frederik Schandorff, Ollie Millroy and Marvin Kirchoffer, some 16 seconds back.

The #79 WeatherTech Mercedes-AMG GT3 won GTD Pro, with Cooper MacNeil, Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Maro Engel driving throughout the race. They won 3.9 seconds to the good over Jordan Taylor, Tommy Milner and Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette C8.R. In third was the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Mike Conway, 10 seconds behind the 2nd-placed Corvette.