Sebastien Bourdais took victory for the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca team in the LMP2 class of the 2025 Daytona 24 Hours with the help of team-mates Job Van Uiter, Sebastian Alvarez, and John Farano.
The Frenchman was in the car for the final stint, and converted a strong performance into a call win. The #99 AO Racing entry looked set to win with an hour remaining, but fell down the order after late mechanical problems.
Ben Keating in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Oreca led from pole position, but dropped to third after some errors, having the ascendancy to Rasmus Lindh in the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson, with teammate Garnet Patterson second in the sister #2 car. The #99 AO Racing Oreca, with PJ Hyett at the wheel, moved into third shortly afterwards.
LMP2 was to cause the first full caution yellow flag period, due to Hunter McElrea of the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 underestimating the T5 horseshoe, with the action not stopping there.
David Heinemeier Hansson’s #18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 made contact with James Roe’s Pratt Miller #73 Oreca at the exit of T1, but despite the innocuous nature of the incident, the Oreca was to earn a drive-through for incident responsibility for his troubles.
The #99 AO Racing Oreca took the lead, now with Dane Cameron driving, and pulled out a 46 second gap on Nick Boulle’s #2 United Autosports and Luis Perez’s #88 AF Corse. Cameron retained the lead into the sixth hour, and the car continued to do so when Britain’s Jonny Edgar took over as darkness began to descend.
‘Spike’ was able to stay in contention and remained on the lead lap, despite Edgar having to take a drive through plus 10 second penalty. This handed the lead to the #04 CrowdStrike Racing Oreca of Toby Sowery.
Deletraz accident throws up chaos
Around the halfway point, the #2 United Autosports Oreca, driven by Nick Boulle, collected the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series of Louis Deletraz which bounced back onto the circuit after crashing on cold tyres.
This handed the lead back to the #22 Oreca, with Lindh back onboard, with Tom Dillmann second in the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca. Cameron kept the #99 AO Racing in the hunt.
The #8 Tower Motorsports of J. van Uitert took the lead under the rising sun, with Sowery and Colton Herta keeping the #4 CrowdStrike in the mix, but the IndyCar driver sent it tumbling down the order after a crash took off its rear wing. Car #99 was now back in the lead, with Cameron back behind the wheel.
The #88 AF Corse was in contention also, but with Matthieu Vaxiviere at the wheel, the car stopped on-track, bringing out the full course caution.
This handed #99 back the lead, with Edgar driving, followed by the #22 United Autosports USA Oreca driven by Paul di Resta. Van Uitert was back in the #22 and back in the lead, with Ryan Dalziel’s #18 Era Motorsport Oreca in close pursuit.
It looked as if the #99 AO Racing would come through its previous strife to take victory, but with Rasmussen at the wheel, the car was forced to pit due to a potential alternator issue.
The #8 was back in the lead, and with Sebastian Bourdais at the wheel, it pulled a gap, and duly took the class victory, ahead of di Resta in #22 and the #74 Riley of Felipe Braga in third. Rasmussen was able to get going again, and took sixth place, but scant consolation for a gutting end to its running.
Editor’s Note:
The #22 United Autosports USA Oreca 07 LMP2 inherited the win after the #8 Tower Motorsports entrant failed its post-race inspection.
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