Meyer Shank Racing retains its title at the 24 Hours of Daytona

Neutralized for a long time under yellow flag, the final hour of the 24 2023 Hours of Daytona offered an intense battle for victory between the two Acuras. Tom Blomqvist led the 61st edition of the Florida classic at the restart of the race in the No. 06 ARX-60 from Meyer Shank Racing ahead of Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 from Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport. The two thus opened the new season as they had finished the last one at Petit Le Mans : by a duel for victory. Neither had any room for error, especially with the No. 01 and No. 02 Cadillacs in ambush.

The beasts were finally released 25 minutes from the checkerboard and Blomqvist irresistibly took advantage of the Portuguese, increasing his lead to more than four seconds ten minutes from the goal. The British-Swede thus completed the work carried out smoothly by his teammates simon pagenaud, Helio Castroneves, already present with him in 2022, as well as by newcomer Colin Braun.

Acura signs a double with the No. 10 of WTRAndretti, while the No. 01 Cadillac in which Sébastien was notably Bourdais a complété le podium. Les Porsche et les BMW ont connu des problèmes de fiabilité.

Photo-finish in LM P2

The 2022 edition was marked by the intense final in GTD Pro between the two Porsches of Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor. In 2023, it was the LM P2s which kept the public in suspense with a duel until the very last moments between James Allen and Ben Hanley. The two men split on the line and it was ultimately the #55 Proton Competition which won by just 0.016 seconds.

The AF Corse n°55 of the French François Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Julien Canal, accompanied by the pilot Ferrari Nicklas Nielsen took third place.

In LM P3, AWA's Duqueine D08 won with more than ten laps ahead of its pursuers.

GTD-GTD Pro: Aston Martin and Mercedes crowned

On the Grand Tourism side, the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 from Heart of Racing Team (De Angelis / Sorensen / James / Turner) and Magnus Racing (Potter / Lally / Pumpelly / Thiim) achieved a double in GTD.

La Mercedes-AMG GT3 from WeatherTech Racing (MacNeil / Juncadella / Gounon / Engel) won in GTD Pro by taking the best in an intense three-way battle with the No. 8 Corvette C3.R (Gardia / J. Taylor / Milner) and the #3 Lexus RC F GT12 of Vasser Sullivan (Hawksworth / Barnicoat / Conway). The three cars took turns leading in the final, but it was ultimately Maro Engel who crossed the line as the winner. Romain Grosjean finished just off the podium with the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracán GT2 EVO63 from Iron Lynx.

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