Porsche Sounds Le Mans Alarm with 20th Daytona 24 Hour Victory
Sports Car Season Starts on a High Note as Porsche Wins Daytona 24
Porsche took its twentieth Daytona victory when Penske Motorsport won the 62nd Daytona 24 Hours on Sunday. The win no doubt sounds a significant warning to Porsche’s Le Mans 24 Hour rivals in June, after it came out on top of an epic Daytona duel with Cadillac.
The #7 Penske Porsche 963 shared by Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell, and Josef Newgarden won a straight shootout with the reigning champion #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R to take that tally to 20 wins on top of four more Daytona victories as engine supplier. It was perhaps more poignantly Penske’s first Daytona win in 55 years since 1969.
Daytona 24 Win Came Down to a Straight Fight
Porsche quartet, Cameron, Campbell, Newgarden and Nasr fought for victory throughout the race, but it came down to that shootout with Cadillac crew of Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken and Tom Blomqvist for the win. Blomqvist took the lead in an epic pass with two hours to race in a three-wide move around a GTD Ferrari. Yet despite Nasr fighting a serious tire vibration, he took advantage of the Cadillac passing his teammate Porsche 963 to close the gap.
Then a late yellow period allowed the second-placed Porsche to capitalize and even further close the gap. The race however came down to the final refuel when the Porsche needed less time in the pit box to come out ahead. Running behind the safety meant that Nasr was able to heat his 963’s tires and overcome his Porsche’s cold rubber disadvantage.
But just as their duel was heating up again, a yellow period led to a restart with just over 30 minutes remaining. The gap was down to half a second with five minutes to go, but the Porsche held on to take a delighted 0.2 second win for Penske after a full day and night of racing.
Porsche 911 GT3 on Daytona Podium
The Cadillac followed from an Acura ARX-06s, but three other Porsches made it four 963s in the top six. The #6 Penske Porsche overcame a series of raceday challenges to rescue fourth ahead of privateer Porsche teams, Proton and JDC Miller in fifth and sixth. All four Porsches finished ahead of the troubled BMWs. Cadillac and Acura both lost their second cars to retirement.
A Porsche also ended up on the GT podium, as Laurin Heinrich, Sebastien Priaulx and Michael Christensen’s AO Racing 911 GT3 followed a Ferrari 296 GT3 and a Mercedes-AMG GT3 home in third.
Daytona is an important victory for Porsche in the lead up to the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hour. The next vital step is a significant upgrade expected for all the 963s in the lead up to Le Mans. That will feature a new crankshaft for the turbo V8 engine, among several upgrades for Le Mans, where Porsche faces significantly tougher opposition.
Not least from last year’s rivals, World Champions Gazoo Toyota, 2023 winners Ferrari, Cadillac, and Peugeot, but also from new rivals, BMW, Lamborghini, and Alpine Renault. So will Porsche make it a dream Daytona and Le Mans 24 Hour double? Diarize the 15-16 June Le Mans 24 Hour now to keep up as it happens!
Photos: IMSA