Wins for Aston Martin and Hyundai in Michelin Pilot Challenge season opener at Daytona

No.71 GS winning crew | Credit: Rebel Rock Racing

Rebel Rock Racing have won the BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona International Speedway for the season opener for the Michelin Pilot Challenge in their Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo. Frank DePew, Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell battled their way through the GS class to win from 29th on the grid.

It was an Aston Martin 1-2 in the GS class as the No.14 Circle H Racing car of David Hampton, Thomas Merrill and Martin Sarukhanyan came across the line just several car lengths behind the No.71 Rebel Rock car. A late race surge from the No.57 WINWARD Mercedes GT4 sealed a podium finish for Bryce Ward and Daan Arrow. 

The TCR class witnessed a hard fought three car battle in the closing stages of the race. In the end it was the No.76 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian backed car of Denis Dupont and Preston Brown that would win the TCR class. Much like the No.57 car, the No.89 HART TCR car of Chad Gilsinger, Tyler Chambers and Cameron Lawerence forged into a late race candidate for the win, in the end settling for second on the road.

The TCR podium was completed by the No.33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian car. The No.33 of Mason Flippi, Bryson Morris and Joshua Buchan led the race late on after competing at the front for the majority of the season opener but were unable to hold on in the closing laps. Flippi is set to contest the Rolex 24 in the DXDT Corvette.

TCR winning drivers of Denis Dupont and Preston Brown | Credit: IMSA

The Results

GS(GT4)-Top 10

1. No.71 Rebel Rock Racing

2. No.14 Circle H Racing

3. No.57 WINWARD RACING

4. No.95 Turner Motorsport

5. No.27 AutoTechnic Racing

6. No.13 McCumbee McAleer Racing

7. No.7 VPX

8. No.19 Stephen Cameron Racing

9. No.2 CSM

10. No.96 Turner Motorsport

TCR - Top 10

1. No.76 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian

2. No.89 HART

3. No.33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian

4. No.98 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian

5. No.52 Baker Racing

6. No.5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering

7. No.18 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian 

8. No.31 RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate

9. No.15 Rockwell Autosport Development

10. No.99 Victor Gonzalez Racing

As it happened 

The race got underway with the No.13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 on pole with Nate Cicero at the wheel. The No.77 Stallion Motorsports with GOU started from TCR pole after the No.99 lost its class pole due to a technical infraction related to bodywork repairs.

Credit: IMSA

Nate Cicero got off to a strong start, building an early gap over the chasing pack behind as Mason Flippi took the No.33 to the TCR lead ahead of the No.77. Varun Choskey was able to climb to 3rd in the RAFA Racing Toyota Supra in the early stages as Paul Holton made it a Ford 1-2 in his TeamTGM GS class car.

As the No.33 and No.77 pulled away in TCR, one car emerged as a potential race winner, in the No.99 Victor Gonzalez Racing car. Franco Girolami, a two time TCR Europe champion, managed to take the car that lost pole position from the back of the grid to 3rd inside the first twenty minutes of the four hour race.

The first Full Course Yellow was called thirty-seven minutes into the race due to debris on the start finish straight from car No.12. The GT4 cars headed into pitlane for their first stop which saw the No.39 CarBahn with Peregrine racing BMW GT4 take the race lead as the No.13, now with Robert Noaker at the wheel, fall to 2nd.

The No.99 managed to come out of the pits in the lead of the TCR class as the No.33 fell to fourth with Joshua Buchan now in the car.

There was then a monumental crash under yellow between the No.12 RAFA Racing GT4 and the pole sitting No.77 TCR car. The GT4 was serving its wave by as Celso Neto, behind the wheel of the No.77, began to weave and collided with the Supra and collected the No.55 after the initial contact.

The race would get back to green with an hour and six minutes completed as Joshua Buchan made the most of the restart to retake the TCR race lead as did Noaker to regain the GS class lead for the No.13. The race soon returned to FCY after the No.99 would receive first of many drive through penalties after forcing the No.93 off at turn one. The No.18 would gain the lead of the TCR class under yellow, but Buchan made sure to regain it once again at the restart as the No.13 continued to lead the race overall.

Credit: IMSA

Andrew Davis would take the race lead in the No.71 an hour and forty minutes into the race as the No.13 was relegated to second. The race would go back to FCY due to problems for the No.21 at the exit of the International Horseshoe, but would return to green with just under two hours of racing remaining.

Thomas Merrill fought to take the race lead in the No.14 as the battles in both classes intensified. Tyler Gonzalez was able to bring the No.99 back into contention, but the car would later receive another drive through penalty. 

The race returned to a FCY twice in a short space of time; the first for debris and the second for a big crash for the No.56 TCR car.

The race would restart with an hour to go. The running order was No.71, No.37, No.14, No.96, No.95 and No.13 in GT4, and No.33, No.76, No.72, No.98 and No.5 in TCR. The No.37 would receive a penalty for jumping the restart.

The No.71 and No.14 would battle hard, before coming in for their final pit stops which saw the No.14 emerge ahead of the No.71. Mario Farnbacher was able to take the No.72 to the TCR class lead in a close battle with the No.76 and No.33.

Credit: IMSA

Farnbacher would then lock up on his way into the pits, along with receiving a drive through due to a tyre without crew pitlane infraction. He would later suffer a front right puncture and retire the car.

Liddell would make a race winning pass in his Vantage GT4 as his team chose to take four tyres in the final pit stop to give him a grip advantage, a decision that would later win the Michelin moment of the race for the GS class.

An enthralling battle for the TCR win developed in the closing laps between the No.33, No.76 and No.89. Denis Dupont would risk going round the outside of the No.33 at the kink to seal the race win with the Michelin moment of the race for the TCR class after a great move down the inside at the following Horseshoe. The No.89 would overtake the No.33 at the bus stop to seal the podium places in TCR.

The No.71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin came home to win the four hour endurance race ahead of the No.14 and No.57.

The headline Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona is due to get underway on Saturday at 18:40 GMT.