Corvettes settle for 3rd & 4th as 20th straight season opens at Daytona
With the France family solidifying its grip, the Daytona 24 has become the biggest stage for sports car racing in north America. Many drivers say that winning at Daytona matters more than any other race on the IMSA Weather Tech Sports Car schedule.
When the green flag waved, the Corvette embarked on its 20th straight season of GT racing. The Corvette is the winningest and longest running marque beating Porsche, Ferrari, Ford, BMW, Aston Martin, Viper, Maserati and Saleen; and outlives Grand Am, ALMS and the WEC that sanctions the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Why is this man smiling? Jan Magnussen captured the GTLM pole (1.42.779 min 18th overall) in the # 3 (new chassis 007). Admittedly he drafted the # 4 of teammate Tommy Milner which is one way to get a leg up on Balance of Performance rules.
It was a flawless performance as usual (despite # 3 loss of telemetry) but not enough to beat the # 67 & # 66 Ford GTs that also enjoyed a trouble-free race.
The caution flag flew only 4 times during the entire 24-hour race. With limited opportunities to take advantage of mistakes by others they had to settle for 3rd and 4th in GTLM.
A moment of silence was observed for the late Dan Gurney, 1962 inaugural race winner, as the iconic Lola T70 he drove in the 1966 Can am circulated the track in a pre-race tribute.
BMW debuted its new GTLM M8 turbo. Sister car # 24 finished 7th in class.
The next test is the grueling 12 hours of Sebring on March 17th.
