Final Notes & Results: TUDOR United Sports Car Series 52nd Rolex 24 at Daytona

by Chris Jameson
January 28, 2014

The checkered flag of The 52^nd Rolex 24 at Daytona flew at 2;10 p.m. ET on Sunday, January 27^th heralding the beginning of the all new TUDOR Sports Car Challenge series sanctioned by IMSA. All in all it was an exciting weekend that included everything from fantastic racing, to near-tragic accidents and of course, just a bit of controversy. Twenty four hours of racing started with a flurry and still, it all came down to inches or mere seconds at the end. This is what I love about endurance racing.

The big news? Well, Action Express put two cars on the podium (#5 – P1, and #9 – P3) while Wayne Taylor Racing tried to put three members of the Taylor family on the top step. They trio of Wayne Taylor and his sons Ricky and Jordan teamed up with Max Angelelli to finish second overall missing the top spot just 2.081 seconds behind the eventual race winner.

Of course here at RaceCanada we like to concentrate on what happened with the Canadian entries – and there were quite a few. There were a total of thirteen (13) cars featuring a total of sixteen (16) Canadian drivers with Paul Dalla Lana pulling double-duty in both GTLM (#97 Aston Martin Vantage) and GTD (#94 BMW Z4). We noticed some additional Canadian content on hand for the race with plenty of crew members coming from north of the border and AIM Autopsort’s Ian Willis was on hand engineering for one of the Level 5 Ferraris (GTD). And speaking of AIM, it is amazing to go through the driver list and pick out all the drivers who have been through both their open wheel and sports car programs. But we will save that story for another time.

So, how did the Canadian do?

We had our best result in LMPC with Mark Wilkins (Palgrave, ON) scoring his first Rolex 24 victory. Teamed with Colin Braun, James Gue and Jon Bennett (team owner) in the CORE Autosport #54 Oreca, this group had the most dominant win out of all the classes leading their nearest competitor to the flag by a margin of one lap. This is the second Rolex 24 podium for Mark who, along with his dad, Greg Wilkins and Ken Wilden (Oakville, ON) took third place in GT back in 2004.

Joining Mark on the podium in LMPC was Maple, Ontario native David Ostella in the Performance Tech Motorsports #38 Oreca. We saw David on the pre-grid and he mentioned this was a last minute deal. He teamed with Raphael, Tomy Drissi, Gabriel Casagrande and Júlio Campos to finish third in class.

In the overall standings, Michael Valiante (Vancouver, BC) was the top Canadian finishing fourth overall in the Spirit of Daytona #90 Corvette DP with co-drivers Richard Westbrook (England) and Mike Rockenfeller (Germany). Despite finishing two laps down to the leaders, we must note that this car and all three drivers ran consistently throughout the entire race and if not for some extended pit stops – a total of ten minutes more in pit lane than the leaders, this trio could easily have taken the overall and class victory.

As for the rest of the Canadians it was truly a mixed bag of results and emotions. You always want to do well at the Rolex 24 but it must also be remembered this is just the first race of what will be a gruelling season long battle – especially when you start the new season of a new series with back-to-back endurance races. Just think, between the Rolex 24 and the 12 Hours of Sebring, all these teams and drivers will have run the equivalent of fourteen regular (2.5-2.75 hour) races and there are still two more extended races to run later in the year (Six Hour of The Glen in June and the 1000 Kms of Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October)

For now though, we present you the final leader board for the 2014 TUDOR Sports Car Challenge Rolex 24 at Daytona. Note that we have separated the charts by class yet still showing overall position (column 1). The rows highlighted in green are for cars featuring a Canadian driver. Rows with blue text are for cars sitting in pit lane when the checkers flew and those with red text are cars listed as “officially retired”. We will include any relevant notes for each class based on any observations throughout the race or discussions with drivers (where applicable).

2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona Prototype Class:
NOTE: Despite retiring from the race, the SpeedSource Mazda Skyactiv-D cars achieved more than they hoped for in terms of time on the track. Their overall goal was to exceed the performance of the 2013 GT cars which featured the same engine mechanicals, but now in a Prototype chassis. They certain met and definitely exceeded that goal and there is a strong desire to continue development of the Skyactiv-D program.

Canadians:     
Michael Valiante (Vancouver, BC)    Spirit of Daytona #90 Corvette DP
James Hinchcliffe (Oakville, ON)      SpeedSource #70 Mazda Skyacti-D
Sylvain Tremblay (Montreal, QC)      SpeedSource #70 Mazda Skyactiv-D

2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona LMPC Class:

NOTE: The winning CORE Autosport #54 was sent on a spin early in the race but did not lose much time. The car was consistent throughout the race and a combination of solid driving and good strategy paid off. David Ostella has certainly proved to be very comfortable racing sports cars and we expect to see a lot more of him this year. Kyle Marcelli ran the Starworks #7 at or near the front a few times but mechanical gremlins finally took their toll. Kyle continues to be a strong presence in the LMPC class. Things did not turn out so well for Chris Cumming and Alex Tagliani in the RSR Racing 08. While they did run well and looked good for a podium, a crash in the middle of the night caused too much damage for the car to continue. Despite that, we expect to see another strong season from Chris in LMPC this year.

Canadians:     
Mark Wilkins (Palgrave, ON)             CORE Autosport #54 Oreca
David Ostella (Maple, ON)                Performance Tech Motorsports #38 Oreca
Kyle Marcelli (Barrie, ON)                 Starworks Motorsport #7 Oreca
Chris Cumming (Vancouver, BC)      RSR Racing #08 Oreca
Alex Tagliani (Lachenai, QC)             RSR Racing #08 Oreca

2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona GTLM Class:
NOTE: Plenty of action in this class with strong manufacturer support – but we’d like to see a few more cars. Kuno Wittmer ran well and near the front but mechanical issues beat the #93. In fact, Mechanicals took their toll on most teams in this class. Paul Dalla Lana split time between the AMR effort on GTLM and BMW in GTD but he stated prior to the race that the GTLM effort was pretty much a one-off in this series. His goal is to concentrate on winning a TUDOR championship with long-time co-driver Bill Auberlen for Turner Motorsports. 

Canadians:
Kuno Wittmer (Montreal, QC)           SRT Motorsports #93 SRT Viper GTS-R 
Paul Dalla Lana (Toronto, ON)          Aston Martin Racing #97 Aston Martin Vantage V8

2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona GTD Class:

NOTE: The largest class of the field and definitely where all the action was – right up to the final few corners! Unfortunately not the best showing for Canadian drivers on the final tally sheet, but still strong in presence with seven drivers in the class. Most notable was the Scuderia Corsa #64 which featured three Canadians, Ken Wilden (Oakville, ON) who will co-drive the car for the entire season plus David Empringham (Toronto, ON) and John Farano (Toronto, ON) who were just in for the Rolex 24. It is always great to see the Dumoulin brothers at the Rolex 24 and this year we had Louis-Philippe in the Alex Job Racing #22 Porsche 911 GT and Jean-Francois in the Magnus Racing #44 Porsche 911 GT. Top Canadian in the class was Paul Dalla Lana whose Turner Motorsport #94 BMW Z4 finished seventh. One driver we will be watching over the season is Max Riddle (Vancouver, BC). Max’s resume reads very much “rally driver” but last year he joined the fledgling efforts of TRG’s Aston Martin program. We will be watching the teams (and Max’s) progress with interest.

Canadians:
Paul Dalla Lana (Toronto,ON)           Turner Motorsport #94 BMW Z4
L-P Dumoulin (Trois-Rivieres, QC)    Alex Job Racing #22 Porsche 911 GT
J-F Dumoulin (Trois-Rivieres, QC)     Magnus Racing #44 Porsche 911 GT
Ken Wilden (Oakville, ON)                Scuderia Corsa #64 Ferrari 458 Italia
David Empringham (Toronto, ON)    Scuderia Corsa #64 Ferrari 458 Italia
John Farano (Toronto, ON)                Scuderia Corsa #64 Ferrari 458 Italia
Max Riddle (Vancouver, BC)           TRG-AMR #009 Aston Martin V12 Vantage

We hope you will join us for more TUDOR Sports Car Challenge racing throughout the season. Follow us on Twitter for immediate news and updates (www.twitter.com/RaceCanada_ca) as well as Facebook for additional news and photo galleries from the track (www.facebook.com/RaceCanada.ca)