Lally Joins Rolex 24 Elite With Fifth Class Victory

Subtitle:Memorable First Win In New Audi R8

Andy Lally moved into elite company with his fifth class victory in the 2016 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

He’s now tied for fourth on the all-time list with Bob Wollek, trailing only Scott Pruett (10), Hurley Haywood and Peter Gregg (six each).

That’s quite a “Mount Rushmore” celebrating the history of America’s premier sports car race.

“[Winning the Rolex 24] even two times was big,” Lally said. “Three times was big, four times was big, now five times – wow, I didn’t know if I would ever see the day.”

Lally admitted he didn’t believe he was in such elite company on the all-time Daytona winners’ list.

“I figured I’d be 10th on the list, or something like that,” Lally said. “Being up there with Pruett, Haywood, Gregg and Wollek is pretty cool.

“But Pruett with 10?! Wow, that really blows my mind. That’s so cool for Scott.”

Lally’s fifth Rolex 24 victory came at the wheel of an unfamiliar car. He was racing an Audi for the first time – more specifically, the No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 co-driven by John Potter, René Rast and Marco Seefried.

Lally earned his first Rolex Cosmograph Daytona when he anchored Mike Johnson’s Archangel Motorsports’ winning SRP II lineup in a Nissan Lola.

“That was a brand-new car, that had never run a 24-hour race before,” Lally said. “We won it by a bunch of laps, and that’s because we played it smart. I was the only pro in the car, and none of the gentlemen drivers wanted to drive in the rain. Since it was raining most of the race, I wound up doing the most driving I ever did in a 24 hours, something like 13 hours.”

He won with Kevin Buckler’s TRG in 2009 and 2011, driving Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars. Justin Marks, Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and R.J. Valentine co-drove in 2009, with Spencer Pumpelly, Steven Bertheau, Brendan Gaughan and Wolf Henzler sharing in the triumph two years later.

“I couldn’t say 2009 was an easy 

one, but we had it well sorted out,” he recalled. “But in 2011 we lost the clutch around 10 hours, and we had to drive 14 hours with no clutch – meaning we would rev the engine leaving the pits while the guys were pushing, and hopefully it would spin the tires enough to leave the pit stall.”

None of the victories came easily; but of his prior Rolex 24 triumphs, 2012 was the most memorable.

“2012 was the 50th running, and we had quite a scrap,” recalled Lally, who co-drove the Magnus Racing Porsche with John Potter, Rene Rast and Richard Lietz. “We had five guys on the lead lap right down to the last hour. We were only in the lead by about two seconds, but the guy who was pressuring us had a little off-course excursion. We ended up winning by five or six seconds.”

Now, last weekend’s victory ranks right up there with the 50th as a real nail-biter. Franz Konrad’s No. 28 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 passed Rast and took the lead in the final nine minutes, only to run out of fuel with only three minutes remaining.

“It seems it gets tougher every year,” said Lally. “This one went absolutely perfect. It was one of those deals where we had it with an hour or two to go. I pitted, got out of the car, and when we started looking at the fuel readings, we realized how close it was going to be. This was the first time that I won where we really had to manage fuel at the end. We knew we didn’t have enough fuel to make it flat out; but with the gap we had to Konrad, from our calculations we knew if they m

ade that gap up and pressed to catch us, they shouldn’t have enough fuel to go the distance.

“So we had to run our pace, knowing we could take off two seconds a lap once we were down to 30 laps to go – about 55 minutes. We were constantly watching the Lambo press and press and press. We knew he either needed a splash [for fuel] and we would be free and clear, or he would run out of gas. When he caught and passed us, we kind of doubted our plan for a moment, but then he ran out of gas on the exact lap we thought he would. Man, that was pretty awesome.”

Lally’s post-race celebration proved typical of his prior victories.

“It was crazy after we won – the joy and the adrenaline were up,” he said. “Jumping up and down, high fives all around. Then you get back to the 

truck, sit down to take off your suit and it starts to hit you. Every time I’ve won, we planned a big, crazy party to celebrate. Then it turns out that maybe half the team even makes it to the restaurant, and everyone is there maybe 45 minutes. We’re all ready to collapse and go to bed.”
After capturing triumph in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, they’ve certainly earned the right to rest.