The No. 05 Cadillac DPi.VR of JDC Miller Motorsports secured a runner-up finish in the one-hour, 40-minute qualifying race for the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Sunday, with Wayne Taylor Racing finishing atop the running order in the No. 10 Acura ARX-05. Corvette struggled for pace in the frenetic GT fight, meanwhile, finishing toward the back of the GTD Pro running order and behind a handful of GTD Pro-Am entries.
The No. 05 entry of Frenchman Tristan Vautier and Briton Richard Westbrook started the qualifying race from pole position after Cadillac locked out the top four positions on the grid in Saturday’s timed lap qualifying session, which set the grid for Sunday’s shootout. The No. 10 car of Ricky Taylor and Felipe Albuquerque, meanwhile, started from the back of the grid after race officials penalized the team for a rear wing angle violation.
When the green came out on Sunday, Albuquerque immediately began working his way up to the front of the field in the No. 10 Acura, taking the overall lead after just 30 minutes of racing. The No. 10 car battled with the No. 05 Cadillac throughout the race, engaging in an intense nose-to-tail battle for the final 25 minutes that ended when Westbrook attempted to make a late lunge on Taylor into Turn 1 on the final lap. Westbrook ended up making contact with Taylor’s left rear, sending the No. 05 car into a spin and forcing the British driver to settle for second place. The No. 48 Cadillac DPi-V.R of Jimmie Johnson and Kamui Kobayashi finished the race third overall.
Cadillac may have been fighting for the win, but it was a much different story in GM’s GT stable at Corvette Racing. The team, which is now competing in the GT3-based GTD Pro category, received a sudden Balance of Performance break from IMSA on Saturday after languishing at the bottom of the time charts during the Roar Before the 24 practice sessions last week. The adjustments did little to up the performance of the GT3-spec Corvette C8.R, though, forcing the No. 3 team of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor to settle for eighth in GTD Pro and 33rd overall. The No. 04 car of Tommy Milner and Marco Sorensen, meanwhile, was ninth in GTD Pro and 38th overall.
While some of the pace disadvantages may be down to the BoP the team was handed, part of it also has to do with the newness of the GT3-spec C8.R and the squad’s limited experience with the Michelin control tire.
Speaking after the qualifying race, Milner said the team was “obviously not thrilled with our ultimate pace,” but remains positive the team will be able to use its experience to its advantage come race day.
“There is still a lot learn with tires and things like that – experience that will help us for the race,” Milner said. “Today was good for us as drivers to learn more about the tires and about interacting with the other competitors in GTD.”
“The car is in one piece and we stayed out of trouble. There’s lots of race data for the engineers to pour over and make our Corvettes as fast as they can.”
The No. 63 Lamborghini Huracan of TR3 Racing was first in GTD Pro, followed by the No. 9 Porsche 911 of WeatherTech Racing and the No. 97 Mercedes-AMG GT, which is also fielded by WeatherTech.
Coverage for the 60th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona will start on Saturday, January 29th at 1:30 p.m. EST.
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Comments
“YES” racing season is about to start again. Lots of time to watch before Planting season starts again.
Why does Cadillac do this? Their prototype in no way resembles a production car and gas is past according to Mary Barra. There is no future for Cadillac other than electric so why be out on a track with a petrol race car. Makes no sense.
I could’ve understood it with a racing variant of the Blackwing 4.2 DOHC V8 but that engine is dead, it only lived a few months, so I fail to see the point of a “Cadillac” roaming a race course with another Chevy small block V8 built by Earnhardt-Childress.
Ci2Eye No one else out there is running electric, so why should Cadillac? You make no sense.
Paul,
The concept is ‘Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday’ which means a carmaker sells cars based on a successful racing program and the race cars association with the cars sitting in the showroom Monday floor on morning..
It literally makes no sense for Cadillac to be out in Daytona or Sebring racing a car that has a Chevy small block engine and zero resemblance to a Cadillac people can actually buy. It’s a Cadillac in name only. Further, if Cadillac is trying to project a green image and go all electric because, well, the planet can’t wait, why have a race car out there with such an egregious pollution-generator as the 6.2 V8.
The concept might’ve made sense if the race car pulsing around Daytona for 24 hours had a 4.2 L V8 Blackwing and customers could waltz into a Caddy store on Monday and ride out with a CT6 V Blackwing. But they can’t. It’s just another Chevy-engined car racing for a brand whose future is all-electric.
Ci2Eye Just rather strange that you are picking out Cadillac for this since every car brand racing in the Prototype class of IMSA is doing exactly the same thing you say. Also, there are other brands racing that have a V8 from other manufactures as wlel. Some are using a Ford V8 from Roush. Also, if Cadillac was running an electric blender motor in their car, no one would watch it. It would be as exciting as watching paint dry.
I was in Daytona over the weekend to see the races and enjoy the warmer weather.
Cadillac has a lot of experience and has dominated their class in the past. Yes, they should continue racing.
Was disappointed the Corvettes did not do better, but will be flying down to Florida from Ohio in March to see them race at Sebring. I am confident the C8R’s will be improving as the racing season goes along. And there are lots of Corvette racing fans to cheer them on!
I am sure the cry baby kraut and jap teams whined so much that the rules were changed to slow the Corvettes down.
Really James Reese? Derogatory slang like that has no place here. You could have made your point without stooping to that level.
With every year, BoP typically determines the outcome in each class with some teams initially getting more BoP and readjusted with each race. In the C8 case, gm had to detune its original GTLM hp and chasis a lot. Let’s hope BoP is again in the C8 favor for Saturday.
Same for Cadillac.
As for BoP, as you know many factors play into how much or how little BoP is applied based on engine cylinders, chasis, engine add ons such as supercharger or turbo, and liter size. Cadillac has a v8 so BoP doesn’t favor Cadillac. 6 or 4 cylinder engines with add on supercharger or turbo are favored by a lot in the DPI. Torque is the factor for the v8 and is reduced, RPM range is also cut short, etc etc.
Should be interesting this weekend.
You got that right,there’s no way that 5.5 putting out 670hp,STOCK!,should be choked down to gocart status!!