Tower Motorsports Wins Rolex 24 Thriller in LMP2

Tower Motorsports emerged victorious in LMP2 at the Rolex 24 at Daytona after surviving late-race attrition as multiple class leaders dropped of contention with mechanical issues and contact in the final hours.

Bourdais elected not to make a final pit stop after an incident and subsequent stops for the then-class-leading Paul-Loup Chatin and Mathias Beche, allowing the Tower driver to assume the class lead after four front-runners faded in the last three hours of the race.

Bourdais claimed his third Rolex 24 class victory in as many classes and won his first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race in LMP2 machinery with the Ricky Capone-led squad, with co-drivers John Farano, Job van Uitert, and Sebastian Alvarez, who each took their first-ever wins at the Florida endurance classic.

Coming into the final three hours of the race, the No. 88 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson of Nicklas Nielsen had firm control of the field, consistently building its gap to the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca and the Bourdais’ Tower car behind, before stopping on track with a gearbox issue.

The retirement allowed Christian Rasmussen’s AO machine to assume the class lead from Bourdais on the restart.

However, the ‘Spike’-liveried car then encountered a suspected electrical issue during a planned fuel-only pitstop with under 90 minutes to go, leading to a significantly prolonged stop before the car rejoined multiple laps down.

Bourdais led the second-tier prototype field until the field fell under yellow again for a stricken No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal with one hour to go, before Era Motorsport’s Chatin jumped him in the pits with a short fuel fill, and Mathias Beche passed him on track in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car.

However, Chatin was involved in contact with Beche on the final race restart with under an hour to go, resulting in damage and subsequent pit stops for both drivers, as well as the No. 52 car serving a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, handing the lead of the race back to Bourdais.

Bourdais saved enough fuel to stay out after filling his No. 8 Tower car in its final stop and maintain a significant advantage to the No. 22 United Autosports machine of Paul di Resta in second.

Tower’s race nearly ended on Saturday evening when Bourdais was caught up in a multi-car collision that took out several contending cars in the eighth hour. However, the Frenchman was able to continue under his own power and keep the car on track.

Despite a late drive-through penalty for the car impeding another competitor in the pits, di Resta hung on to claim second place, 44.697 seconds behind Bourdais.

Felipe Fraga brought the No. 74 Riley entry onto the final step of the podium despite losing significant time with a right-side door latch issue, with Beche running fourth as the final car on the lead lap in class.

Meanwhile, Chatin completed the top-five after his late-race dramas.

The once-leading Christian Rasmussen was classified sixth, eight laps off the lead ahead of George Kurtz’s No. 04 Crowdstrike by APR machine claiming seventh in class, ten laps down, following an accident by Colton Herta in the morning hours.

RESULTS: Rolex 24 at Daytona