Cadillac, Wayne Taylor Claim Yet Another Rolex 24 At Daytona Victory
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The No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R of Wayne Taylor Racing has claimed yet another victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, winning the prestigious endurance event for the third time in just four years.
With Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi behind the wheel, the black and blue Cadillac crossed the finish line a minute ahead of the No. 77 Mazda DPi of Oliver Jarvis. The Mazda showed strong pace in qualifying, with Jarvis putting the 2.0L turbo powered car on pole position, but the No. 10 Cadillac was by far the fastest car in the field on race pace – even outclassing the other Cadillac DPi-V.R teams in the field. This relative pace proved crucial when Ryan Briscoe incurred a one-minute penalty with about five hours to go, with the Australian missing the red lights at the end of the pit lane during one of the race’s few yellow flag periods. While this dropped the team from first to fourth, they were able to quickly claw back time and get back into second place. A yellow flag then put the team back on the lead lap, with Briscoe turning the car over to Kobayashi to drive it home. The pair also shared the car with Renger Van der Zande and five-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon.
Finishing third behind the No. 10 and the No. 77 was the No. 5 Cadillac DPi-V.R of JDC Miller – a strong result for the Minnesota team, which is only in its second year running the Cadillac DPi-V.R.
In the GTLM class, meanwhile, Corvette Racing and the No. 3 Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor, Antonio Garcia and Nicky Catsburg finished fourth overall. While not a win or podium result, the mid-engine C8.R was both reliable and quick in its first race, with the team saying the result “showed the potential of the mid-engine Corvette.” The No. 4 car of Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fassler had a tougher time, though. The grey car suffered a cracked bell housing that led to an oil leak, forcing them to pull it behind the fence for lengthy repairs. The team still sent the car back out, but with a result out of the question, they essentially treated the remainder of the race like a test session, team manager Ben Johnson told Sportscar365.
GTLM was won by the No. 24 BMW M8 GTE, with the No. 912 and No. 911 Porsche 911 GTE entries finishing second and third, respectively.
This year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona was particularly tough on the cars and drivers, with an abundance of green flag running leading to a record amount of distance covered. The No. 3 car, which wasn’t far off the GTLM field front runners at the checkered flag, completed 785 laps and covered 2,794.6 miles – the greatest distance for any Corvette entry in Rolex 24 history.
Click here for full results from the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
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Photos: Barry Cantrell, Richard Dole and Michael Levitt via IMSA
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Kobayashi drive an amazing stint to get them the lead and the rest did well to overcome mistakes to bring it home.
Agreed! He was amazing.
I expected better performance from the C8. Hopefully it will dominate Petit Le Mans.
This was a team effort after several mistakes had to be overcome.
To come back from a lap down to nearly 1 min ahead is impressive.
The C8. R had a very good race pulling a 4th place in only the first race that was 24 hrs and run at a record pace against two other well sorted cars. Yes even the new pa Porsche was run last year in Europe.
The Corvette team needs to learn the adjustments and log them. Not testing or simulation can replace race controls fully. This will be a year of learning with a few wins coming in.
Remember they are only at the base line now and will only improve over what they have now.
This is yet another strike against General Motors CEO Mary Barra and demonstrates how Cadillac should have been given a green light to developing a production version the the Rolex 24 at Daytona Cadillac DPi-V.R.
You can not make the DPi car a production car.
#1 it is just a pure race car.
#2 other than a couple race teams no one would pay the price.
Years ago someone took a couple 962 Porsche cars and made them street legal. They are limited in how and where they are driven. They also cost over a million dollars.
This Cadillac is built and based on a Dallara P217. The only thing a Cadillac is some styling cues and decals.
So before you get too critical you need to gather all the facts.
Cadillac needs to figure out how to sell a luxury sedan their core product before before they try a sports car that they already failed at twice.
SAW A BLACK SHIRT WITH A C-8 ACCELORITE YELLOW CONVERTIBLE.WANT TO BUY.NOW CANT FIND?
WHERE CAN I GET A SHIRT WITH A YELLOW C-8 CONVERTIBLE?I SAW ONE AND CAN NOT FIND NOW.