by Daytona Beach, Florida – a comprehensive, talented and ambitious 61-car field – featuring IMSA WeatherTech sports car champions, NASCAR stars, Indycar winners, Formula 1 veterans and a wide assortment of accomplished drivers from 31 countries – took the green flag Saturday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway for the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Blue skies, cool temperatures and a large crowd that even included Miss America showed up to watch a global roster of runners compete to win coveted Rolex Daytona calendar watches for their work on the 3.56-mile road course which also incorporates parts of Speedway’s famous High Banks.
A five-minute restart before the six o’clock mark – after the third full guard period of the race – saw a generally frenetic movement among the front-running Touring Prototype (GTP) cars which went three wide in the first turn.
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In the end, American Colin Braun prevailed to take the front position in the No. 60 Acura Meyer rod races with a Curb Agajanian Acura Arx-06 before the No. 7 Rolex 24 of the race .
Mathias Beche held the 12-car Prototype 2 (LMP2) class lead in the No. 52 PR1 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca LMP2 07 – Swap the front point with Felipe Fraga, co-owner of the No. 74 Riley Oreca, in a Spirited fight in front of this class.
Paul Miller’s new two-car racing team paced the 15-car grand tour Daytona Pro (GTD Pro). At six o’clock, Jesse Krohn was out front in his No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO with Connor de Phillippi third in the sister’s No. 1 car.
TF Sport’s trackhouse No. 91 Corvette – co-driven by NASCAR stars Shane Van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch, as well as IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin and sports car champ Ben Keating – was 12th in GTD at the six o’clock mark.
The entire GT Field had a “moment” on the first lap when the No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 car of Nick Boulle spun directly in front of them. The evasive action cost the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 to relinquish the early lead, but both Ford multimatic motorsport Mustangs quickly recovered and ranked among the leaders for much of the following hours.
“It was really bad actually, we got really lucky there,” said Mike Rockenfeller, who drove the No. 64 Mustang from the pole and took some early escape action.
“We lost a position, both of us (Mustangs) but it doesn’t matter. It’s a long race and the track will change and hopefully it will be a clean race for us and we’ll see where we are at the end.
“I certainly wasn’t ready for this, although you should be,” Rockenfeller said. “Somehow I didn’t expect this.”
David Fumanelli led the most populated class in the field, the 22-car Grand Tour Daytona (GTD) class, in the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.
For most of the early ones, it was GTP BMW M TEAM RLL and Porsche Penske, the overall field. However, as expected and as usual, the racing was dramatic from the drop of the green flag in all four classes.
The prototype class, in particular, featured numerous lead changes between all the different brands and a wide assortment of drivers.
Kamui Kobayashi – who also has access to Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s Kamui Kobayashi – who also has NASCAR Cup Series starts under his belt.
Teammate Jordan Taylor spoke to the media as the Japanese super-talent entered the lead earlier in the night, looked up and could only smile.
“It’s fun to watch him,” said Taylor, who shared that while other drivers spent their days off or doing something fun, teammate Kobayashi instead spent a night doing laundry at a local 24-hour laundromat, watched a little Netflix, and even went to a local Dick’s Sporting Goods and purchased a portable sauna that he’s been using ever since.
“We knew he was going to be like that (pushing to lead the race),” Taylor continued. “You see him all weekend through practices watching his onoards and as he learns the new car you see him making the adjustments behind the wheel and having fun. It’s his style and why people love him.
“It’s exactly what I would expect from him looking at a restart where everyone is unsure of the conditions and he moves forward.”
It should be noted that there were three full throttle cautions and the weather went from starting temperatures near 60 degrees ambient and 90 track to a much cooler and ambient track and ambient in the night passage. Soft compound tires now available for GTP teams to operate up to 10 a.m.
IMSA also distributes the first IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup points of the 2025 season at the sixth hour. The top three teams in each class at designated periods are awarded five, four and three points respectively, with all others earning two. At the Rolex 24, Michelin Endurance Cup points are awarded at the sixth, 12th, 18th and 24th hours. Naturally, cars leading to the six o’clock mark earn all five points.
Coverage continues on Peacock until noon ET, returning to NBC at noon ET on Sunday.
