Era Motorsport’s Ryan Dalziel reflected on his ’emotional’ third 24 Hours of Daytona victory last weekend as part of the LMP2 class-winning #18 Oreca 07 Gibson entrant.
The LMP2 Daytona 24 winners claimed their first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory since the 2022 Sportscar Weekend sprint race at Road America.
“I think each win gets a little more emotional,” said Dalziel. “I think our disappointment in the last two seasons with Era, and especially 2023 was a rough year for us. We finished Petit and we were just thirsty to come back and perform this weekend.”
It was a challenging LMP2 campaign for the team last year, with a best season finish of P2 at the Watkins Glen six-hour race, and a conclusive P5 at the Road Atlanta-based Petit Le Mans finale.
As the LMP2 field has increased to 12 full-season entries, with the exception of AF Corse’s Endurance Cup entrant, nevertheless marking a more competitive time for the category.
“You can’t afford to have mistakes at this level, of the 13 cars this year I’d say 10 of them were contenders from the green flag, but it narrowed down to a four car race at the end.”
“I think Christian was the man for the job there at the end, I don’t think you want anyone else other than him.
“He’s a beast in this car, and Connor, at 17-years-old you just can’t say enough about him.”
Zilisch became the second-youngest winner of the race, taking on his debut at it’s 62nd running, and will continue to race for the outfit in the remaining four Endurance Cup rounds.
Era found themselves fighting for the win against the likes of Crowdstrike Racing by Algarve Pro Racing and PR1 Mathisen by Inter Europol.
The team claimed their second Daytona win since the 2021 race, where they partnered with former European Le Mans Series LMP2 champions IDEC Sport, as it was Dalziel’s second, having claimed his maiden overall win in 2010.
Conclusively, after the work of the other drivers, Christian Rasmussen’s final stint maintained the gap in front of the #04’s Malthe Jakobsen, which secured victory for Rasmussen, Dalziel and their fellow teammates Dwight Merriman and Zilisch.
