(UPDATED) Rolex 24 Hour 24: WTR beatdown complete

Wayne Taylor Racing has stormed to a second straight Rolex 24 At Daytona victory with its No. 10 Cadillac DPi, handing the marque four straight wins, and a clean sweep since the inception of the DPi era.

Kamui Kobayashi and Renger van der Zande -- who have two wins in a row now with the team -- along with Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon were masterful here, and overcame a power steering issue and penalty in the second half of the race to take a rather dominant-looking victory of a minute over the competition.

The winning Cadillac DPi-V.R. Image by Cantrell/LAT

"This is, as everybody knows, a difficult event to win, (and) this was more difficult than any other year," said Wayne Taylor. "We had a low car count which meant there weren't going to be many yellows, so we worked so hard.

"The yellows change the entire race. The team was outstanding, the drivers around me I can't say enough about; they are superstars without egos. This event is all about the people and everybody focusing on the big picture, and what it is to win.

"I'm ecstatic. It's our third win as a team, and, for me, five wins including as a driver. I can't say enough about (Kamui) Kobayashi and (Ryan) Briscoe. Renger did a five hour stint in the night and was really impressive, too. And Dixon ...

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"What that should mean is that Cadillac pays us a lot of money and says, "You guys are the factory team," he added when asked about Cadillac's four straight DPi wins at the Rolex 24. "The good thing is I'm 63 years old and can get away with saying what I want! But I can't think of anything more exciting than going on to win the Le Mans 24 Hours with Cadillac. We need to figure that out with GM. It would be good to take this group to (France)."

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With perfect weather, and a low car count, fans were treated to a ton of green flag running. There were just six cautions (for 1 hour 45 minutes) in this race, which saw the previous distance record of 808 laps (from 2018) destroyed once again, with 833 completed. It wasn’t an all-time classic, but this was a high-speed chess game which in all four classes kept us guessing until the final hours.

Mazda, in by far its best performance at Daytona in many years, finished second with its No. 77 RT24-P. While this is a huge turnaround for the brand, which hasn’t had a car finish this race since 2012, the team will leave disappointed to come so close after such a strong run in the build-up and during this race.

One of the more pleasant surprises in this race was the No. 5 JDC Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac, which finished third and led for various periods of this race. The squad, which hasn’t got the resources of the other Cadillac teams, but has world class drivers, can be proud of this run to third.

Off the podium was the No. 6 Acura. It was a hugely disappointing race for the Penske team, which had high hopes of challenging for the win all the way to the flag this year with its ARX-05. But the No. 7 suffered heavy damage from being hit by the No. 55 Mazda early on, and the No. 6 sister car suffered porpoising issues that cost the team time throughout, resulting in its car finishing five laps down.

Two other contenders which suffered here were the No. 55 Mazda, which had multiple mechanical niggles en route to finishing sixth, and the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac that had the pace but spent an extended period behind the wall after a puncture and never recovered. It finished seventh.

It must be noted, though, that while many cars in DPi hit trouble, all of them made the finish. The three chassis are all clearly mature now and capable of surviving plenty of punishment.

LMP2 was won in dominant fashion by DragonSpeed, its No. 81 ORECA of Ben Hanley, Henrik Hedman, Colin Braun and Harrison Newey delivering the team its second win in a row at Daytona after a near faultless run. Aside from a puncture, the No. 81 ran like clockwork and that was enough to fend off the No. 52 PR1 ORECA which often had a pace advantage when the amateur drivers in the class went head to head.

DragonSpeed celebrates! Image by Levitt/LAT

PR1 finished second, two laps back, with the No. 18 Era Motorsports ORECA a distance third, 11 laps adrift.

"What he (Ben Keating) did in this race in LMP2, was just amazing," said DragonSpeed's Hedman of his PR1 team rival. "He is a Bronze driver but his performance was on par with Gold drivers -- unbelievable. All kudos to him. They were unlucky, but at the end of the day we had the crew to do this. I've been here for five years and there is no better place to be," Hedman explained after the post-race conference, noting rival Keating's performance in the race, particularly the start where he gapped the entire LMP2 field, consistently running multiple seconds quicker than the other drivers.

Only one LMP2 didn’t finish, the No. 38 Performance Tech ORECA, which underwent a significant amount of repair work before the race event started after its heavy off in the final practice. It was the first LMP2 to suffer a blow in the race, Cameron Cassels going head on into the barriers at the International Horseshoe triggering a caution. From there it was a tough race all the way until the car was retired.

The only other car which really looked capable of challenging here was the No. 8 Starworks ORECA. Peter Baron’s crew looked certain for a podium, but a water system malfunction cost the team dearly, dropping them to fourth.

GTLM came down to the final hour. As the race wore on it was clear that this race would become a fight between BMW’s No. 24 M8 and Porsche’s pair of new 911 RSR 19s. In the end, the No. 24 BMW prevailed, Jesse Krohn, Chaz Mostert, John Edwards and Augusto Farfus all playing a part in a hard-fought win for the brand, which also won last year.

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Krohn was in for the end and made a bold move on Nick Tandy in the No. 911 Porsche to take the lead just before the final stops. After the final round of stops, after hours and hours of almost nose-to-tail running, Krohn emerged in the lead and pulled away, winning by 13.5 seconds, over the Porsches which fought hard right to the flag, the No. 912 finishing second ahead of the No. 911.

GTLM winners on the podium. Image by Levitt/LAT

“It was stressful,” Krohn said of the battle in the final stint. “Very little sleep through the night and it’s all on your shoulders at the end, so I didn’t want to be the guy that finishes second and denies these guys the watches. So I just put my head down, first of all when I saw the Porsche ahead of me -- I knew the only way for us to pass them was to actually catch them and make the move, so it wasn’t given to us.

“It’s unbelievable. I don’t know how we did it. There are no words. These guys did an amazing job throughout the whole night -- no mistakes from anyone at BMW, at RLL and the drivers. This is what it takes to win the race.”

For Porsche, meanwhile, it wasn’t a win, but it was nevertheless a big result in the car’s IMSA and 24-hour-race debut.

It was also a hugely significant race for Corvette Racing, which debuted its C8.R globally. What can we take away from this? The new car is quite reliable already. The No. 4 suffered a major oil leak, then a suspension issue after Tommy Milner had an off into the pit-out Armco. But the No. 3 had a largely flawless run, and was in sight of a podium at the very least until the BMW and pair of Porsches turned the wick up in the final few hours.

Finishing fourth is a victory of sorts for the C8.R, which showed flashes of real pace this week. It bodes well for the team’s next two big endurance races this year at Sebring in March and Le Mans in June.

BMW, like Corvette, had one car run flawlessly and another that hit trouble. The No. 25 finished a distant fifth, and spent much of the race recovering from a wheel nut issue and electrical gremlins.

There was only one casualty here, the Risi Competition Ferrari driven by an all-star team of Ferrari factory drivers. Throughout the race, James Calado was keen to stress that the team was forced to run its 488 GTE ragged just to keep up and that it didn’t have the outright pace to win. In the end he was right, though the car didn’t fall too far back at any point until a puncture in the penultimate hour prompted the team to retire the car.

The GTD podium. Image by Levitt/LAT

GTD became a tale of two Lamborghinis at the end, after the early hours were dominated by a rotating cast of German and Italian machinery. Paul Miller Racing’s No. 48, crewed by Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, Corey Lewis and Andrea Caldarelli won this one, finishing 24 seconds clear of the Magnus Racing Huracan which led as late as the penultimate hour.

“It’s a lot of years of trying and a lot of years of pain, watching other people walk past you with the watch you want so bad,” said Bryan Sellars said. “There's really ... there's really no words to describe watching the (Rolex) finally being handed to you and everybody on your team.

“This would be my fifth attempt with Paul and everybody at Paul Miller Racing, and it just feels so good to finally get it to come together. We are just so proud of all the guys and what they accomplished in the work they put in at the shop.

"I think for the four of us, the drivers, this is something we've all waited to do together. We've all done it separately, but never as a complete combination. There are no words.”

The racing in GTD was fast and frantic, with at least four cars constantly within a minute of the leader until the sun came up on Sunday. Before the race started, it appeared that Pfaff’s Porsche would be the car to beat, and in the opening hours the team enjoyed a comfortable lead.

But it would all fall apart overnight, the car suffering a powertrain failure which put it out of the running, eventually finishing 49 laps down.

This left Porsche with the No. 16 Wright Motorsports 911 GT3 R as its hopes of winning, but the car didn’t have the raw pace toward the end and took fourth ahead of the Black Swan Racing example, which was Wright Motorsports’ spare chassis.

A top-five finish for Tim Pappas and his team was huge reward for its crew members, after a Practice 1 incident that wrote off its original chassis and forced the team to source a new one. A magnificent effort here, after they missed almost all the pre-race track time.

Elsewhere, there are a few more points to make from the GTD class. Turner Motorsports’ BMW looked strong early, faded and dropped to sixth, ahead of the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari which also ran in the top three in the first half of the race but wasn’t able to keep up once the night hours concluded.

Aston Martin must also be mentioned here, because it was an IMSA debut to forget for the Vantage GT3. The Heart of Racing entry retired after a collision at pit in with the Precision Performance Lamborghini and the No. 98 Aston Martin Racing car was withdrawn in the first half of the race too following a rare mistake by Ross Gunn, who hit the Armco at pit out and terminally damaged the car.

OFFICIAL RESULTS