Mustang GT3 Takes Maiden Win in Daytona GTD Pro Battle

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Ford Multimatic Motorsports delivered the maiden race victory for the Ford Mustang GT3 by taking the GTD Pro class victory in the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Dennis Olsen, sharing the No. 65 car with Chris Mies and Fred Vervisch, secured the win for the Blue Oval by storming past the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R at the final restart with 38 minutes to go.

Olsen then held firm as the sister No. 3 Chevrolet, piloted by Alex Sims, closed up to within a handful of tenths, remaining right on the bumper of the Ford throughout the final twenty minutes.

The Norwegian then got a breather as a battle between Sims, the No. 4 Chevrolet of Nico Varrone and Kelvin van der Linde’s No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO ended in tears when the South African was tagged into a spin at Turn 1.

The clash between Corvette and BMW served as the conclusion to a heated battle between the two brands that saw the No. 4 and No. 1 cars clash with Milner and Connor De Phillippi at the wheel.

This came after the sister No. 48 BMW car, delayed after getting caught up in a multi-car collision in hour eight, got involved in the battle as Augusto Farfus sought to aid De Phillippi in the fight for the win.

Farfus received a penalty for blocking for his efforts, after which De Phillippi and Milner came to blows on at the International Horseshoe with bodywork damage for the latter

A caution caused by the No. 88 Pecom Racing Oreca 07 Gibson threw the Corvette squad a lifeline and kept it in contention, but it could not prevent the Blue Oval from taking the first Rolex 24 win for its GT3 challenger upon its second start in the event.

Sims, Antonio Garcia and Daniel Juncadella finished second, ahead of the No. 64 Ford piloted by Mike Rockenfeller, Seb Priaulx and Austin Cindric.

Van der Linde, De Phillippi, Madison Snow and Neil Verhagen came home in fourth, ahead of the No. 69 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 crossed the line in sixth, with the No. 4 Chevrolet seventh after serving a drivethrough penalty for the contact with Van der Linde.

A physical, late-race battle that resulted in contact ripped the nose of the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, leaving Laurin Heinrich, Klaus Bachler and Alessio Picariello to come home eighth ahead of Trackhouse by TF Sport.

Multiple significant contenders were eliminated in the opening half of the race, with the No. 75 SunEnergy Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo falling victim to a cracked oil tank, while the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW were both taken out of contention in a multi-car collision in hour eight.

AWA Gives Corvette GTD Victory

Orey Fidani, Lars Kern, Matt Bell and Marvin Kirchhoefer secured a breakthrough victory for AWA in the GTD class.

The No. 13 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R finished 1.454 seconds ahead of the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer, Tom Sargent and Ayhancan Guven.

Bell came out on top after a late race battle with the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi, with the two drivers trading the spot back and forth on multiple occasions.

Drudi, who shared the No. 27 car with Tom Gamble, Zach Robichon and Casper Stevenson, then also lost out to Guven’s No. 120 Porsche.

The No. 13 Chevrolet led much of Sunday morning, but a late caution with just over two hours to go reshuffled the order.

This promoted the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R to the class lead, while the No. 13 car was wrestled down to fourth place by the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini and No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.

All three took turns at the head of the field, but the No. 45 was eliminated with suspension failure in the final hour, the caution for which came right at a time that forced the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG and No. 120 Porsche to pit for emergency service to take on fuel.

This then left Drudi clear to challenge Bell’s No. 13 Chevrolet for the class win, capturing the race lead with a big dive up the inside into Turn 1.

However, Bell returned the favor with an overtake on the Aston Martin into Turn 6 with 17 minutes to go.

The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG ended up finishing fourth, with Russell Ward, Indy Dontje, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje recovering after initially going seven laps down after an early throttle pedal issue.

Turner Motorsport completed the top five in class with its No. 96 BMW driven by Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher, Jake Walker and Jens Klingmann.