DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Jan. 25-26 — The British Empire was well represented at the 62nd running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, the first race of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC).

A total of 23 drivers from the U.K. (which included a couple of Scots) took part in the race, with driver Nick Tandy from Bedford, U.K., taking the overall win for Team Penske in the #7 Porsche 963 GT Prototype (GTP).

Not only did Tandy win overall, in doing so he became the first driver in motorsports history to win all four of the major 24-hour races in the world: Spa-Francorchamps, Nürburgring, Le Mans, and now Daytona. An amazing achievement for the popular Brit!

A British team in the other Prototype class, LMP2, came away with their own victory after the apparent winners, Tower Motorsports, were disqualified after a post-race tech inspection. Elevated to the win were Scotsman Paul Di Resta and teammates Daniel Goldburg, James Allen and Rasmus Lindh in their #22 United Autosports ORECA.

And, in the GT Daytona (GTD) class, the Heart of Racing Team took their #27 Aston Martin Vantage to the podium with a 3rd-place finish after leading a total of 118 laps under different stints by drivers Casper Stevenson, Mattia Drudi, Zacharie Robichon and Tom Gamble.

A great setting for the race

The week started cloudy and cold in Daytona, and even northern Florida saw a snowstorm prior to the race. Each day of race week, the weather improved — from the aforementioned cloudy and cold, finally to clear blue skies and comfortable temperatures (yet not warm enough for our tastes).

We have been going to Daytona for more years than we care to remember, but we have never seen a crowd as large as what was on hand for this year’s Rolex 24. There were so many people on the grid walk that you could hardly move. Every camp spot on the infield was taken, every parking spot was filled, and even the massive Daytona grandstands were full by the start/finish line.

It is a testament to what IMSA has become — host to the best and most competitive sports car series on the planet.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the outstanding success and growth of IMSA is the “fan friendly” attitude at the races. Think about it: access at IMSA races is unprecedented in all of sport. The access the fans get at an IMSA race would be like FIFA letting its fans not only onto the field for the World Cup, but into the locker rooms too!

Rolex announced at Daytona that they will have expanded involvement in IMSA racing in 2025 and beyond, as they are now the official timepiece of IMSA. Word has it that they are going to be more heavily involved with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring as well.

More details will be revealed as they become available. Sebring is the next IWSC race on the IMSA schedule, taking place in mid-March.

Thrilling, right to the end

As mentioned, at the end of twice-around-the-clock intense racing, it was Porsche Penske Motorsports at the top of the standings, with the #7 Porsche 963 of Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor taking the victory — just as the team did last year.

As has become the norm in IWSC racing, the margin of victory was small — only 1.335 seconds separated the winning Porsche from the 2nd-place #60 Acura ARX-06 from MSR, piloted by Brit Tom Blomqvist along with co-drivers Colin Braun, Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist. The second Porsche Penske 963, #6 driven by Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Kevin Estre, completed the overall and GTP class podium, finishing just 4.43 seconds behind the winning car.

Nick Tandy had a few thoughts about the special record he set. “At some point years ago,” he said, “someone told me that nobody had ever managed to achieve overall victory in the four biggest 24-hour races. Since that day, this goal has been in the back of my mind. Now it has been realized. It feels great to be the first person to achieve something like this.” Hats off to him.

The LMP2 class held a surprise. At the finish we all thought that the #8 Tower Motorsports ORECA had won the class with drivers John Farano, Sebastián Alvarez, Sébastien Bourdais and Job Van Uiltert. Bourdais had built up a sizable lead over United Autosports’ Paul Di Resta and crossed the line in front by nearly 39 seconds.

But on January 29th IMSA announced that the Tower Motorsports entry had been disqualified due to excessive wear on the skid block. The team appealed the decision, claiming the wear was caused by a shock failure during the race, but to no avail. It must have been gutting to have to return the trophies and the Rolex watches.

The LMP2 victory then went to United Autosports. Di Resta commented later, “It’s never nice getting handed the win a couple of days after, but that’s part of it, you’ve got to pass all the necessary tests.”

Readers will remember that all LMP2 cars run British-built Gibson engines.

In GTD Pro, Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ #65 Mustang won the class, but without British connections. In GTD, however, the winning #13 Corvette Z06 by AWA was piloted by Brit Matthew Bell, along with co-drivers Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Marvin Kirchhofer.

In the final half-hour of the race, Bell traded the lead a couple of times with Drudi in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston. Drudi eventually lost ground to Bell and then to the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911, but still managed a GTD podium finish.

There were a total of four Aston Martins in the race (two finished) and, unlike last year, there were no McLarens on hand in GTD or GTD Pro. Pfaff Motorsports switched to Lamborghini, while Inception Racing went with Ferrari. Neither entry finished.

Heart of Racing’s GTD Pro entry, the #007 Aston, retired after 217 laps when a mechanical failure led to the loss of its left rear wheel. The car had been running as high as the top five, and driver Roman De Angelis had just gotten into his stint when the incident occurred.

Team Principal Ian James later commented, “To get on the podium [with car #27] is an amazing achievement. It’s unfortunate what happened to the #007 car — they were in a really good position to have a good result as well.”

Looking ahead

Big things are coming soon for British fans however, as at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the highly anticipated Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP will make its debut with Heart of Racing. GTD Pro drivers Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis will migrate to the new platform.

With the addition of Aston Martin at Sebring, the GTP ranks will keep getting stronger. Twelve cars (four Porsches, three Cadillacs, two Acuras, two BMWs and a Lamborghini) took the green flag at the 2025 Rolex 24. There continues to be talk of other manufacturers waiting in the wings, so look for more announcements in the coming days, weeks or months — from Ford, McLaren, Hyundai, perhaps others?

The 2025 race will be remembered as an outstanding and historic Rolex 24. It featured close racing, lots of action, and even some controversy after the checkered flag. Sixty-one cars started and 40 cars finished — a testament to how tough the race was. The best teams, drivers and cars in the world took part and put on a fantastic show for the fans, the ones there in person and the millions who watched on TV or the Internet.

It is now on to Sebring for round two of the new golden era of sports car racing — the IWSC.

See you at the races.

[With thanks to IMSA Radio, the Heart of Racing Team, and Lee Driggers’ Pit Notes.]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Jan. 24 — Drama? There was plenty of it in the BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona, the first event this year in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge (IMPC).

Last year’s champions, Team TGM, came to the race with high hopes of an excellent result, only to suffer abysmal luck and penalty after penalty that dropped them almost to the bottom of the pack with no chance of recovery.

And a team that surprised everyone with their skill — and a very fast car — clinched the win in the last three minutes despite being shuffled several positions down after a restart following the race’s final yellow flag.

The latter team was Accelerating Performance. That very fast car was their #44 McLaren Artura GT4, and the drivers sharing the victory were Moisey Uretsky and Michael Cooper, after facing some very heavy hitters in Porsches, Ford Mustangs, and a Mercedes.

While McLaren fans can take pride in the outcome, the picture wasn’t so good for the race’s five Aston Martins. The top-finishing Aston, van der Steur Racing’s #82 Vantage GT4, only managed 17th place while its newer sister car, the #15 Vantage GT4 Evo, came 18th. Both were off the lead lap. Other teams’ Astons finished as far back as six laps.

The details

The BMW M Endurance Challenge followed the usual IMPC formula: two classes, Grand Sport (GS) and Touring Car (TCR), and a staggered start so all the GS cars began the race in front of the slower TCRs. Over the course of the race the two classes would naturally mix in traffic, but under cautions they would regroup so the GS cars would be in front at the restart. This happened five times during the race as there were five yellow flags.

Team TGM, fielding two Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evos in GS — #64 and #46 — had an absolutely miserable day. It began barely nine minutes into the race with TGM’s Ted Giovanis in the #64 Evo running into William Tally’s #5 Honda Civic FL5 TCR. Tally spun and stopped against a wall with damage, severe enough that the Honda later retired after completing only four laps.

While race officials recommended no action against Giovanis, his teammate Paul Holton was not so lucky. After his #46 Evo nudged a BMW that also spun, but recovered, Holton wound up with a drive-through penalty.

Unfortunately for Holton, it didn’t stop there. He went back to a closed pit for a quick repair to his right front quarter involving a lot of racer tape — and a quick splash of fuel. While the repair might have been a necessary, emergency stop, officials did not look kindly on the crew’s five seconds of refueling and hit Holton with another penalty, this time a stop plus 60.

Holton returned to the race more than ten positions down from where he started. Later he was hit with another penalty following a restart, this time for an “improper pass around,” which carried with it a stop plus three minutes and 48 seconds.

Matt Plumb, his co-driver, finished the race six laps down and 32nd overall. Giovanis and his co-drivers in #64, Kris Wilson and Hugh Plumb, finished three laps down and 24th overall. Wilson, adding to Team TGM’s travails, also had to serve an “improper pass around” penalty.

Another Aston team suffered a broken car.

If you have already read the Webster-LePine report on the Rolex 24, you’ll know about the Heart of Racing Team’s #007 Aston Evo losing its left rear wheel on the track. The day before — in this IMPC race — the identical thing happened to Rebel Rock Racing’s #71 Evo, a mechanical failure causing the wheel to separate from the car and requiring a flatbed tow back to the pits.

Fortunately for Rebel Rock a repair could be made and, although the stop was lengthy, driver Andrew Davis was able to drive out of the pits and return to the race. About an hour later he gave the car over to partner Robin Liddell, who finished 31st overall.

By way of contrast, for just about all of the four-hour race, the Accelerating Performance team ran their McLaren smoothly and consistently, with the exception of a drive-through penalty Uretsky had to serve an hour and 20 minutes into the race (for leaving the pit area with equipment attached). After a somewhat lengthy stint Uretsky handed off to Cooper, who soon started his advance from 8th position to 5th.

The performance from both car and driver seemed to startle IMSA’s commentators. “That car never really threatened in the top five in any of the sessions leading up to this race,” one of them said, joking that the team was like a “snake in the grass... lying in wait, not letting anyone know their full potential”!

But Cooper is an ex-McLaren factory racer, having campaigned GT4 cars in the USA and Europe. He also competed in the Rolex 24 years ago in the former LMP3 class, which he won. Perhaps what was happening should not have been such a surprise.

On two separate sweeps of Daytona’s famous bank Cooper passed a Mustang and a Mercedes and was soon in position to charge for the win. But some traffic from lapped cars had him slip back to 5th before having to make a hard charge again.

In the final few minutes that featured remarkable driving from the top three cars, Cooper made his way around Billy Johnson’s #59 Mustang — a car virtually unpassable on Daytona’s straights, but not on the curves — and set his sights on the race leader, Jan Heylen in the #28 Porsche 718.

Heylen to that point had held Johnson’s Mustang at bay with some brilliant defensive moves. But this time he went slightly wide on his approach to the bank, allowing Cooper to draw level on the back stretch and overtake him with a pass on the inside with less than three minutes left to the race.

Heylen, a seasoned contender, was naturally ready to retake the lead if Cooper faltered, but he didn’t. Not only did Cooper bring home the first IMPC win for himself and Uretsky, it was McLaren’s first win at Daytona since 2021.

After the race Heylen was heard to comment, “It’s tough to be this close and then lose it in the last two or three laps. But they were the better car today — it’s as simple as that.”

[With thanks to IMSA Radio, commentators John Oreovicz and Tony DiZinno, and Lee Driggers’ Pit Notes.]

[Peter and Allison take a Lotus Elan on another adventure, though this time it’s closer to home than the Himalayas, Atlas Mountains or Sahara Desert. This one is called...]

The Churches Run. This annual event is organised to raise money for churches in Norfolk. (England, in case you were wondering!)

In the past we started from Norwich Cathedral where, after a bacon roll and cup of coffee, the cars left via the Erpingham Gate (built in 1420), with the Bishop blessing the first few, waving to the next, and then joining the rally after about 20.

(Then the Cathedral cafeteria was franchised out, the roll and coffee became too expensive, and we started elsewhere this year, a local garden centre.)

The route is about 65 miles and passes more than 20 churches with scheduled visits to half a dozen, most of whom offer tea and cakes — how can you refuse when it’s all in a good cause?

Initially there were 25 cars, but now it’s more popular and this year’s entry was 139 cars — any car will do, but the majority are classics.

Our first visit within half a mile was Framlingham Pigot, with its unusual minaret-style tower. Designed to look 14th-Century, it was built in 1859 on the site of a much older round-tower church.

St. Andrews, another stop, has a Commonwealth War Grave of a 31-year-old local man who died in March 1918 — around the time of the Battle of the Somme. (Commonwealth War Graves are found wherever the two World Wars had an impact and soldiers from the Commonwealth died they are marked by a distinctive green sign.)

In the next five miles we went past the sites of another five churches, one just a few lumps in a field and another, St. Martin’s, abandoned around 1550 and now a ruin with nature trying to reclaim it.

Our next visit was to Saxlingham Nethergate. The village dates from 832 and a church was recorded here in 1086 in the Domesday Book. It was rebuilt over the years and the tower dates from the 14th Century. A rector in the early 19th Century installed four glass roundels dating from 1250 and the church is considered of national importance for its collection of stained glass.

St. Mary’s Church, Tasburgh, was not on our list to visit but mentioned as a ‘drive by’. The area is bounded by ancient earthworks and settled by the Anglo-Saxons in about AD 700. The church dates from 1050 and the lower part of the tower is from that time, making it one of the oldest round-tower churches in Norfolk.

Two miles down our route we found another St. Mary’s with an attractive flint porch.

Missing the odd church, we came to Great Moulton, where the church is dwarfed by the Italianate splendour of the 1831 Rectory, designed by JW Donthorn, a founder member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. By the 1960s the building was derelict but rescued and turned into two dwellings.

Our next stop was a church at Tivetshall, abandoned in 1949 when a jet plane’s sonic boom brought the tower crashing down.

Burston Church also lost its tower — but due to a storm in 1753.

All Saints, Tibenham, was our next stop, and this church was the first on our route to display the link between this part of East Anglia and the United States. It has a plaque remembering the 445th USAF Bombardment Group, one of whose commanders was film star James Stewart. In the 1940s this countryside was a mass of airfields.

(Tibenham is now used by light planes and gliders Snetterton is a racetrack and Hethel is the site of Lotus Cars. Others have museums or host air displays whilst others are industrial estates or have reverted to farmland. Others never existed but were dummies to decoy German bombers on their raids.)

In Old Buckenham (another airfield town), All Saints Church with an unusual octagonal tower and thatched nave was hosting a wedding whose guests had arrived on an old London bus, so we hurried on to Banham — another St. Marys Church, but this time with a spire. This church dates from the early 14th Century, the roof beams bear the date 1622, and the interior was refurbished in the 19th century by the Victorians.

We had passed a cyclist on our way here but after a long chat to friends in a Triumph Stag thought no more of him until he appeared outside the church and offered a prayer for the next part of the trip. It turned out he was the vicar for this group of churches, but maybe cycling along the route of 139 cars wasn’t his best decision!

The route continued down country lanes, pubs and churches to its end in Bressingham — also home to a garden centre and a steam museum where the Dean of Norwich Cathedral gave a short “Pit Stop” service in which he faced the challenge of relating motoring to the realms of Scripture.

Then we all headed home with the hope that someone will take on the job of continuing this tradition as the current organisers are standing down. First choice — find a day which will be dry and warm!