United Autosports drivers find a lot to savor in belated Rolex 24 win

Rasmus Lindh woke up Tuesday morning after the Rolex 24 At Daytona to a pair of missed calls — one from co-driver Dan Goldburg, the other from CEO and co-owner of United Autosports Richard Dean.

They were trying to tell Lindh that he and the rest of the No. 22 United Autosports USA crew had won LMP2 when it was found that Tower Motorsports’ car had failed post-race inspection, bumping them up from a bittersweet second place. In 48 hours’ time, Goldburg, Lindh, Paul di Resta and James Allen were all gathered for a press call after the results had been declared official.

“We just kind of set about doing what our plan was, just knocking off the time and prepping everything to be in the fight at the end. And really, everything was going great,” Goldburg recalled. “A couple things happened, and a penalty at the end kind of set us back, and we ended up second..

“It was a tough second for us, in a weird way. We knew we should be pleased because we executed well. But we really felt we should be in that fight at the end, and didn’t get that opportunity.

“So we went home somewhat pleased and ready to go on with the season… And then finding out about the penalty, absorbing the win — it’s just been crazy. I mean, we’re really happy about it.”

When looking back on it, they’d driven one of the cleanest races in an LMP2 field that was littered with attrition. The No. 22’s race was only compromised by a flat tire at the halfway mark, and a drive-through penalty in the final hour for leaving pit equipment in the path of another car during their last stop in a congested pit lane — which both Goldburg and di Resta felt was a particularly harsh decision.

While they had to watch Tower Motorsports’ drivers partying hardest on the podium at Daytona, the United Autosports quartet would get the last laugh. Michael Levitt/Lumen

The original second-place result would have already been a big turnaround from last year, when the No. 22 led by Goldburg and di Resta only put together a single podium finish, and started the year with Goldburg crashing out early in the race.

“I had a pretty disastrous 24 last year,” he admitted. “There was a lot of thinking from there through the rest of last year and coming into this year.”

A significant keystone in Goldburg’s development came in qualifying when he bested his former United teammate Ben Keating, widely considered to be the premier bronze-graded driver in major endurance racing, to win the pole position in LMP2 and end Keating’s run of five straight Rolex 24 class pole positions.

Pole position was the start of Daniel Goldburg’s Rolex 24 turnaround. Michael Levitt/Lumen

“Coming into the event, I said, I wanted to give everything I had in qualy, and then take it to a different notch for the race — and just stay clean, stay consistent, stay at a certain pace that the team and I wanted,” Goldburg said. “When I got out of the car at about 11 o’clock on Saturday night, I had a very big sense of relief at that moment that I had done my job — done exactly what I came there to do. And I was pleased that I did my part in that.”

Goldburg also said he’d taken his fitness up a level going into his second season of driving LMP2s in IMSA, and also reshaped his mental approach, being more calm behind the wheel of his ORECA 07.

“I’m just so much calmer and it just allows me to drive in a calm and controlled way, as compared to a little more on edge last year,” he said. “Last year was very painful. I had pretty high expectations for myself. But in retrospect, I just didn’t come into it thinking everything through and having the right mindset.

“In the prior year, two of our four drivers never even got in the car, and it’s a strange pain you feel in that circumstances. With how much goes into these events, the preparation, the teams, the money, everybody’s efforts — and then to lose it early and let everyone down is huge. It’s just an amazing sense of accomplishment to make that kind of turnaround and be here where we are now.”

A construction company leader during the work week and ambitious racing driver on the weekends, Goldburg has excellent chemistry with di Resta as well as Lindh, whom he’d previously raced with in LMP3 before reuniting this year.

Di Resta certainly has the pedigree and recognition through his time in Formula 1, DTM and now in the WEC as a Peugeot Sport factory driver, but this race also represents a significant turning point for Lindh, who’s spent time bouncing between the American single-seater ladder and the Pro-Am categories of prototype racing to little fanfare.

“I first started driving with Dan in 2020 — the COVID year,” Lindh recalls. “I’d signed with Indy NXT then, but they closed that championship down for the COVID season and I got the opportunity to race with Dan. We went racing on and off a little bit since 2021; we did quite a few races in both IMSA Prototype Challenge and a few races in WeatherTech together.

“I’ve been coaching him and creating a very good relationship, and it means a lot to share this with Dan, this big win — and also with both James and Paul. It’s a great team, us four.

“We came back pretty strong and pretty quick on the lead lap again,” he noted. “The last hour and a half of the race, I had not been looking at the timing and scoring so hard in my life, I think. To win the race in this way feels a little different, but I mean, I’ll take it!”

“Frankly, I wasn’t taking my racing career as serious until he showed up with our team in 2020, and I realized I had a really good co-driver for the first time in my life, and it really amped me up,” Goldburg said of the young Swede. “It really just lit a fire under my butt to take it seriously, take my fitness seriously, and it started a pretty big ramp-up in my driving.”

Brandon Badraoui/Lumen

Goldburg wanted Lindh to be part of United Autosports last year but couldn’t make it work financially. So when Bijoy Garg moved on to be the new “designated silver” driver at Inter Europol Competition, it opened up a spot for Lindh to rejoin him for the first time since the Swede left for Andretti Autosport in 2022.

“I know personally what Rasmus can do, but he hasn’t really had the exposure in the paddock, so I was pushing to help him find a spot,” Goldburg related. “When the spot opened up in our car, I tried very hard to make sure he would be in it. Richard and Max and the team, we brought Rasmus to a couple tests. He performed really well and then they saw what I was seeing — and they worked to get him in the seat. It’s pretty awesome how it all came together and I’m excited to share it with him.

“I started driving with Paul last year, and the two of them have just pushed me along quite a bit, each in their own way. I credit very much where I am as a driver to the coaching from the two of them.”

The drivers are all awaiting the delivery of their Rolex timepieces for winning their class, and United Autosports plans to get together ahead of the Sebring 12 Hours to celebrate as a team. UA intends to fly Allen out to be part of the festivities, even if Daytona was his only planned start of the IMSA season.

“I’m really proud to have been a part of it. I won’t be joining them for the rest of the season, but I wish them all the best — and they deserve to have all the success for this year as well,” said Allen, who won his second Rolex in three years, albeit in much different circumstances to the way he won LMP2 in 2023, in his famous photo finish over Ben Hanley.

“It’s not quite as exciting as the first time I won,” he admitted, “but it still doesn’t take anything away from the effort from everyone at United, and Dan, Paul, and Rasmus. All the hard work they’ve put together since the end of last year, and even leading up to now, has been really incredible.”