Darkhorse AWA team from Canada defies the odds at Daytona
Matt Bell drove the final stint and led the # 13 C8 Z06.GT3.R in the closing laps to win the GTD class at the 63rd running of the 24 hours of Daytona.
The IMSA Weathertech Rolex opening round at Daytona is now the “Superbowl” of sports car racing under the tutelage of IMSA chief John Doonan. There were 235 drivers representing 31 countries all told.
Leaving the infield course, Matt, squeezed inside the # 27 Aston Martin GT3 Vantage Evo of the hard-charging Mattia Drudi, sped up the banking and flew off down the long straight, through the bus stop turn and onto the tri oval for the checkered flag.
It was jubilation and joy for the AWA team owned by Andrew Wojteczko with funding support through team driver Orey Fidani, a family member of the $ 4 BBN Orlando real estate company.
IMSA GTD (22 cars) and IMSA GTD PRO (15 cars) are essentially the same. The difference is that bronze, silver and gold-rated (amateur) drivers must drive at least half the distance. AWA held out platinum (Pro) drivers Matt Bell (UK) and Marvin Kirchhofer (GER) past halfway which paid off at the end.
Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims of the Pratt & Miller team led the # 3 C8 Z06.GT3.R to 2nd place in GTD PRO in a wild finish, sandwiched between the winning # 65 and third-place # 64 Ford GT3 Mustangs of Christopher Mies and Sebastian Prialux.
Hopes for the Pratt & Miller # 4 were dashed by an incident of unsportsmanlike conduct and an accident that dropped the team to 7th.
Augusto Farfus in the # 48 BMW was running fifty laps behind but repeatedly blocked Tommy Milner trying to protect his Paul Miller teammate Kelvin Van der Linde in the # 1 BMW. Milner was not too pleased to say the least!
Van der Linde later collided with Milner, inflicting damage to the left rear at the exit of the International Horseshoe.
Four marquee drivers piloted the # 91 C8 Z06.GT3.R that fell to 9th place in GTD PRO after flirting with the frontrunners throughout the race.
Justin Marks of Trackhouse Racing (NASCAR) hired Kiwi stars Shane van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin plus youngster Connor Zilisch and Ben Keating for the big race. Tom Ferrier TF Sport (UK) supplied C8 Z06.GT3.R Corvette chassis 012. It will shed this “one off” livery to run all 6 races in the 2025 European Le Mans (ELMS) Series starting at Spain in April.
The DXDT # 36 C8 Z06.GT3.R Corvette under team owner David Askew moved a step up to IMSA GTD competition a year after nearly blitzing the SRO World Challenge Series sprint races with an incredible string of victories.
Alec Udell from last year’s squad was joined by pro drivers Pipo Derani and Charlie Eastwood who stopped the car halfway through the race with an engine fire that ended their long day in 20th place.
Five (5) cars mark the largest group of Corvette entries at Daytona since the Grand Am series in 2007.
Scooter Gabel in his IMSA GTP (Lola chassis) Corvette built in the early 1980’s won his class in an Historic Sports Car Racing (HSR) track event that preceded the 24-hour race,
Photo credits: Richard Prince, Kevin Bowman, Jake Galstad, Michael Levitt, IMSA/HSR, Fast Cars photos
