DragonSpeed Takes Third Rolex 24 LMP2 Win in Four Years

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

DragonSpeed has captured its third Rolex 24 at Daytona LMP2 class win in the last four years with its all-star lineup of NTT IndyCar Series drivers Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward, Devlin DeFrancesco and Bronze-rated driver Eric Lux taking top honors.

Herta drove the Barcelona-based, U.S.-flagged Oreca 07 Gibson to a 7.089-second win over the No. 29 Racing Team Nederland entry of Giedo van der Garde, who snuck by to finish second following contact between Herta and the No. 8 Tower Motorsport Oreca of Louis Deletraz while battling for the class lead.

Deletraz, who got out ahead of Herta on the final round of pit stops, was forced wide into the newly named Le Mans Chicane by the IndyCar race winner with less than 15 minutes to go.

No further action was taken by race control upon review of the incident.

Deletraz dropped to third as a result, 11.5 seconds behind the class-winning DragonSpeed entry.

The Elton Julian-led outfit previously claimed top class honors in 2019 and 2020, with all three wins coming with entirely different driver lineups.

O’Ward and Herta become two-time class winners after their triumphs in 2017 (PC) and 2019 (GTLM), respectively.

Van der Garde shared the runner-up finishing TDS Racing-run Oreca with Frits van Eerd, Rinus Veekay and Dylan Murry.

The No. 8 Tower team completed the class podium with Deletraz, John Farano, Rui Andrade and Ferdinand Habsburg.

The class pole-sitting No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca was fourth, also on the lead lap at the checkered flag with Peugeot factory driver Mikkel Jensen at the wheel.

Jensen’s co-driver Ben Keating, who was pulling double duty this weekend, was denied of a double podium finish after finishing third overall in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R in his top class debut.

The lead PR1/Mathiasen entry finished six laps ahead of the No. 68 G-Drive Racing by APR Oreca, which was delayed with mechanical issues, as well as the sixth place class-finishing No. 22 United Autosports Oreca.

Riley Goes Back-to-Back in LMP3

LMP3 class honors went to Riley Motorsports for the second consecutive year, with the No. 74 Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson, Kay van Berlo and Michael Cooper coming out on top.

Fraga took the 74 Ranch-sponsored entry to a 1-minute and 30-second victory over the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier of Malthe Jakobsen following a late-race drive-through penalty for the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier of Colin Braun for passing under yellow.

It marked back-to-back class wins for defending LMP3 champion Robinson, with Fraga, van Berlo and Cooper all claiming their maiden Rolex 24 class wins.

Danish teenager Jakobsen shared the Sean Creech entry with Joao Barbosa, Lance Willsey and Seb Priaulx, who battled an illness to log his minimum drive time.

The No. 54 CORE entry of Braun, Jon Bennett, George Kurtz and Nic Jonsson rebounded to complete the class podium. 

RESULTS: Rolex 24 at Daytona

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John