2018 24 Hours of Daytona: Mustang Sampling's Record 808-Lap Win

The 2018 24 Hours of Daytona was the 56th running of the race and the opening round of the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship. It ran on the 12-turn road course at Daytona International Speedway from 27 to 28 January, and it was also the first of four North American Endurance Cup rounds that year.

Why did the race matter in 2018?

The race is informally counted in the Triple Crown of Endurance Racing, with Sebring's 12-hour event and Le Mans. It was the first of twelve IMSA races that season, and it marked the start of a busy year for several manufacturers.

NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. built Daytona International Speedway in 1959 and envisaged the race as a way to bring endurance racing from Europe to America. IMSA confirmed the event for the 2018 calendar in August 2017, its fifth consecutive year in the series schedule.

Penske returned to full-time sports car racing for the first time since 2009, fielding two Acura ARX-05 prototypes. Mazda came back after withdrawing from the 2017 season with three races left, with its RT24-P cars re-engineered by Team Joest.

A record 808 laps, four cautions and a Lamborghini first: the 2018 Daytona 24 set the tone for a demanding season.

Who entered the 2018 race?

Fifty cars were officially entered, spread across the Daytona Prototype International, GTLM and GTD categories. Wayne Taylor Racing returned as the defending champion with a Cadillac DPi-V.R, and three existing teams fielded two DPi entries each, mixing Cadillac and Nissan cars.

Each car carried two regular IMSA drivers, joined by one North American Endurance Cup driver and one or two additional drivers. Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Felix Rosenqvist were among the one-off participants, drawn from Formula One, Formula E and other series.

Chip Ganassi Racing fielded two Ford GTs, its third straight year with the car, and Corvette Racing took two aging C7.Rs. BMW made its competition debut with the M8 GTE, and Ferrari fielded four 488s in GTD, more than any other manufacturer in that class.

How did the balance of performance change?

IMSA adjusted the balance of performance before and after the January tests. The Cadillacs gained 10 kg in weight and a larger air restrictor, the Nissan and Acura prototypes were raised to 940 kg, and the debuting BMW M8 GTE was set at 1,250 kg.

Testing ran for three days, from 5 to 7 January, in seven sessions involving all 50 entries. Afterwards IMSA added 1 L of fuel capacity to the Cadillacs, cut the Mazda weights by 15 kg, and changed rear wing angles on the Corvettes and Fords.

What happened in practice?

Practice ran over four sessions, three on Thursday and one on Friday, and several cars were damaged by tyre and wall incidents. Rast's Mazda set the early pace in the opening session, Castroneves led the second and Mike Conway topped the final one.

The opening one-hour session ended with Rast fastest at 1:37.428, just 0.007 seconds ahead of Vautier's Spirit of Daytona Cadillac. Jordan Taylor was third in the Wayne Taylor car, and Albuquerque fourth. Early in that session Phil Hanson's United Autosports Ligier met the turn five tyre barrier on cold tyres, and a red flag lasted 8 minutes and 49 seconds while it was removed.

The second session produced Castroneves's fastest lap of the day, 1:37.096 in the Penske Acura, ahead of Lapierre's ESM Nissan and Albuquerque. Patrick Pilet set the GTLM pace at 1:43.902 for Porsche, and Alvaro Parente's MSR Acura NSX was quickest in GTD.

The third session ran at night for 90 minutes. Vautier set the fastest overall lap at 1:37.210 in the Spirit Cadillac, while Menezes's JDC-Miller car suffered a right-rear tyre failure at turn six, which halted practice for 12 minutes. In the final session Mike Conway was fastest at 1:36.865 in the No. 31 WER car, while Bruno Senna's United Autosports tyre blew on track.

Who took pole at Daytona?

Practice was led by Mazda in the opening session, when Rast set 1:37.428. Qualifying took place on Thursday afternoon in a 75-minute session split into three groups. Renger van der Zande took pole for Wayne Taylor Racing in 1:36.083, his third career pole and the team's first at Daytona since 2010.

Castroneves took second on the front row for Penske, and Albuquerque put the Mustang Sampling Cadillac third. Magnussen took GTLM pole in 1:42.779, a new class track record, while Daniel Serra set the GTD pole at 1:46.407.

The grid order changed after qualifying. Bortolotti's Lamborghini was sent to the back of the GTD field for failing a stall test, so Jack Hawksworth's Lexus started third in the class.

What changed before the start?

Tomy Drissi withdrew for business reasons, so the BAR1 Riley Mk. 30 ran as a four-person entry. Three other entries were sent to the back of their class after changing starting drivers, while two others changed engines without a grid penalty because the race exceeded six hours.

Chip Ganassi, the founder and owner of his team, gave the signal at 14:40 Eastern Standard Time under dry but cloudy skies, with temperatures between 18 and 25 degrees Celsius (64 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit). Forecasters had put the chance of rain on Sunday at 70 per cent. Repairs to Renauer's damaged No. 58 car had taken two hours and eight minutes before the start.

How did the race unfold?

Van der Zande led from the green flag, but Albuquerque took over after the first round of stops and kept the lead for five hours. Castroneves then took it, and the lead changed hands among Penske, WER and Mustang Sampling over the next 12 hours.

Robert Renauer damaged the No. 58 car on the first formation lap, and repairs took two hours and eight minutes. Four full-course yellow periods of 14, 18, 20 and 22 minutes interrupted the race, and rain in the fifth hour sent most cars in for rain tyres.

In the morning Nasr and Castroneves collided in the infield, and Penske's car returned 25 laps down. Van der Zande's WTR car dropped ten laps after a right-rear puncture, and team owner Wayne Taylor withdrew it on safety grounds.

Ford led GTLM for most of the race, with the Ford GT leading all but nine of 783 laps. Mustang Sampling shut the engine off at pit stops to keep temperatures down, and Albuquerque nursed the overheating car over the final two hours.

Jordan Taylor's right-rear tyre burst on the banking before the fourth hour ended, but repairs took just 29 seconds because he was close to the pit lane. Light rain then began just as the fifth hour started, catching several cars out, and it soon grew heavy enough for most of the field to pit for rain tyres. Once the rain eased, the banking and the infield dried at different rates.

The first major GTLM incident came 4 hours and 42 minutes into the race, when debris cut the right-front tyre of Bill Auberlen's BMW M8 on the banking. He kept off the wall and returned to the garage for front-right bodywork repairs.

In the eighth hour Albuquerque moved past Castroneves on the hairpin and opened a five-second gap. Shortly before that hour ended, pit stop rotation handed the lead back to Castroneves.

The GTD lead changed hands repeatedly. The class lead passed to Adam Christodoulou's car, the No. 33 Riley Mercedes-AMG after IMSA found that the No. 29 Land Audi, driven by Schmidt, had breached the fuel-flow limit during pit stops. Land was penalised five minutes in its pit box. The second full-course yellow followed soon after, for 18 minutes, when Roberto Gonzalez hit the tyre barrier on his out-lap.

Tung's Jackie Chan Oreca slid at the Bus Stop and ran into the inside barrier, which meant a new rear wing. Both ESM Nissan DPis retired by hour 14 with gearbox and engine failures, and Cameron's Penske car lost 24 laps to the leaders while an alternator was changed.

The third full-course yellow lasted 20 minutes after Jorg Bergmeister's Park Place Porsche touched the tyre wall. The fourth lasted 22 minutes after Kyle Masson put Legge off the track. Bomarito's Mazda retired at the West Horseshoe after an exhaust problem caused a fire.

Who won the 2018 24 Hours of Daytona?

Mustang Sampling Racing's Filipe Albuquerque, Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa won in the No. 5 Cadillac DPi-V.R, completing 808 laps. That covered 4,629.25 km (2,876.48 mi) and beat the distance set at the 1982 race by a Porsche 935.

This was the third outright Daytona win for Barbosa and Fittipaldi, and the first for Albuquerque. The Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT finished first in GTLM, 11.180 seconds clear of its sister car, and the win was the team's 200th motor racing victory.

In GTD the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini won, with Bortolotti, Breukers, Ineichen and Perera sharing the driving, delivering Lamborghini its first 24-hour race victory. Bortolotti had started at the back of the class after the stall test failure.

What were the full results?

What did the result mean for the championship?

After the opening round, Albuquerque, Barbosa and Fittipaldi shared the Prototype Drivers' lead on 35 points each. Ford took the GTLM championship lead through Westbrook, Dixon and Briscoe, and the GRT Grasser Lamborghini crew led the GTD table.

Mustang Sampling Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing and GRT Grasser Racing Team each took the lead in its class team table. Cadillac, Ford and Lamborghini each took the lead of their manufacturer tables, with 11 races left in the season.

What happened after the flag?

Continental Tire, one of the two tyre suppliers, said that double-stinting its tyres, running them outside the recommended pressures and camber settings, and track temperatures at a five-year high all contributed to the punctures. It debuted a more durable slick at Sebring.

The No. 29 Land Audi was impounded for three hours after the race over a discrepancy in fuel data. Starting at Sebring, IMSA set minimum refuelling times for every class, which overrode the restrictor sizes issued to teams.