Driving like a seasoned veteran, 22-year-old Pipo Derani took the lead with one-hour, 17-minutes remaining and pulled away down the stretch to lead Tequila Patrón ESM to victory in the 54th Rolex 24 At Daytona, capping off a sensational race in the opening round of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.
Derani was joined by Johannes van Overbeek and car owners Ed Brown and Scott Sharp in the No. 2 Honda Ligier JS P2. It was the first overall triumph for both Honda and Ligier in the event, and the second overall victory for Sharp, who teamed with rival car owner Wayne Taylor in 1996.
“The last two hours and a half was pretty tough, pretty intense, with the Taylor brothers pushing us really hard trying to victory,” Derani said. “I was trying to not make any mistakes and keep the gap. To increase the gap up to the end was amazing. I need to thank my team for the amazing car they gave me.”
The winning car completed 736 laps on the 3.56-mile circuit, 2,620.16 miles, with the competitive race featuring 76 lead changes.
“When you have a supporter like Tequila Patrón and Ed, you want to deliver wins like this,” Sharp said. “2015 was a bit of a rough year for us. We made a lot of changes as November rolled around, and to see all that culminate together and to come out of the box and win a big race like this is just huge for us.”
Max Angelelli finished second, 26.166 seconds behind in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP co-driven by brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor plus Formula One veteran Rubens Barrichello, a late roster addition. Wayne Taylor Racing – owned by the 1996 and 2005 Rolex 24 winner – finished second for the third time in the last four years.
Visit Florida Racing took the remaining podium position with a lead-lap finish for Ryan Dalziel, Marc Goossens and Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 90 Corvette DP, 1:27.276 seconds behind at the checkered flag.
Scott Pruett came up short in a bid for an unprecedented sixth overall victory in the event, finishing fourth in the defending Prototype champion No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP co-driven by Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Felipe Albuquerque. The team ran in contention until a broken axle sent the Action Express Racing team to the garage for repairs with less than four hours remaining.
The defending winning No. 02 Ford Chip Ganassi EcoBoost Riley of Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson ran in contention for the first half of the event before falling back with brake problems. Its chances ended shortly after the 21-hour mark when Larson crashed in the International Horseshoe, resulting in major front-end damage, although the team managed to repair the car to finish seventh in the Prototype class.
NOTEBOOK
· Jordan Taylor, No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP: “I think it was a pretty good race. If we had track position, we could kind of hold off the 2 car, but with certain drivers in that car, they could kind of get around us pretty easily. So it was tough. We had a flawless race pretty much. We never went behind the wall. Actually in four years we haven’t gone behind the wall. We’ve finished every lap.”
· Prior to retiring with an engine failure shortly before the midway point, the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Tire Kingdom Honda Ligier JS proved to be the car to beat in the Prototype class. “It’s tough, but at the same time this happens in racing,” said Ozz Negri. “We would have loved to show Tire Kingdom and Florida Lottery how cool it is to get a Rolex, and I’m pretty sure we were on our way to getting one.”
· Katherine Legge became the first woman to lead the Rolex 24, pacing the field twice for 27 laps in the No. 0 Panoz DeltaWing Racing coupe before her pit stop. The car ran near the front until the two-hour, 43-minute mark, when co-driver Andy Meyrick struck the stopped car of Chris Cumming in Turn 1, resulting in the car’s retirement.
· The victory also helped Tequila Patrón ESM take the lead in the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup, which spotlights the four longest races on the WeatherTech Championship schedule. The team has 16 points, three more than Action Express Racing’s No. 5 Corvette DP.
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