Era Motorsport Oreca Takes LMP2 Class Honors at Daytona

Era Motorsport held off CrowdStrike Racing by APR in the closing stages to take the LMP2 class victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona for the second time in the team’s history.

The No. 18 Oreca 07 Gibson of Dwight Merriman, Ryan Dalziel, Connor Zilisch and Christian Rasmussen crossed the line 6.8 seconds clear of the No. 04 entry driven by George Kurtz, Colin Braun, Toby Sowery and Malthe Jakobsen to win.

In a race that saw the normally robust class suffer a high attrition rate, the No. 18 Oreca emerged from the night period as a front runner but dueled with the No. 04 car for much of Sunday morning.

The Algarve Pro Racing-run entry vaulted to the front with Jakobsen at the wheel with six hours remaining, only for the order to swing back around as Era regained the upper hand.

A late caution, triggered by a fire for the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, condensed the pack and set up a direct showdown between Rasmussen and Jakobsen.

Jakobsen risked a penalty when he tagged the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Jesse Krohn into a spin into Turn 3, but was only given a warning for the incident.

The No. 04 car then remained within striking distance as the final 30 minutes of the race ticked away, but Rasmussen was able to withstand the pressure from his compatriot and eventually pull away to claim Era’s second LMP2 class victory at Daytona.

The team previously took a breakthrough victory at the 2021 edition of the event, when Dalziel and Merriman were joined by Paul-Loup Chatin and Kyle Tilley.

The CrowdStrike by APR squad, meanwhile, finished second in the LMP2 class for a second consecutive year, having narrowly lost out on victory in a photo finish 12 months ago.

The No. 74 Riley Oreca of Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga, Josh Burdon and Felipe Massa completed the class podium, with No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca driven by Kuba Smiechowski, Nick Boulle, Tom Dillmann and Pietro Fittipaldi in fourth.

Tower Motorsports rounded out the top-five in class with its the No. 8 machine in the hands of John Farano, Ferdinand Habsburg, Michael Dinan and Scott McLaughlin.

United Autosports, an early leader with the No. 2 Oreca headlined by NTT IndyCar star Pato O’Ward and co-driven by Ben Keating, Nico Pino and Ben Hanley, came home in sixth.

Across the 24 hours, the usually reliable and robust LMP2 class suffered a high attrition rate, with the opening phase of the race particularly featuring several high-profile accidents that saw other notable cars get caught in the crossfire.

The No. 20 MDK by High Class Racing Oreca 07 Gibson had an incident-filled race that most notably saw the car tangle with the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus that was a front runner in GTD Pro.

Steven Thomas crashed early on aboard the No. 11 TDS Racing machine, while the No. 22 United Autosports entry and the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P217 Gibson both retired.

AO Racing pulled into the pits late with its No. 99 machine, while the No. 88 AF Corse Oreca of Luis Perez Companc, Lilou Wadoux, Nicklas Nielsen and Mathieu Vaxiviere failed to reach the checkered flag.

RESULTS: Rolex 24 at Daytona