Winners, losers and missing in action from the 2023 IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona.

79 weathertech racing, mercedes amg gt3, gtd pro cooper macneil, daniel juncadella, jules gounon, maro engel
IMSA Photo

With the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona now in the rear-view mirror, Autoweek looks back on a few things you may have missed as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship kicked off the season in high style:

Lucky 13 for Cooper MacNeil

Cooper MacNeil shared the GTD Pro victory in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 fielded by Proton Competition, winning for the first time in his 13th and what is planned to be his final attempt.

The immediate future calls for MacNeil, 30, to focus on his family’s WeatherTech business, sponsor of his car and IMSA’s premier series. He was off to a good start on the business side. The victory backed up a full-page ad about the team’s pole that ran in the Wall St. Journal.

“We came close in 2015, finishing second,” said MacNeil, “but this year the Mercedes was in contention the whole time. We put the best AMG drivers in the car we could find in the world, and they drove their butts off.”

Helio’s Amazing Dream

Helio Castroneves uncharacteristically avoided cameras after winning a Rolex Daytona watch for the third straight year, because he was tearing up about what he described as an amazing dream. “I love so much this sport, because it’s very hard, and when you get it, you’ve got to celebrate.”

, final rolex 24 notebook: cooper macneil, missing wec hypercars and more

Team Penske IndyCar veterans Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin got a taste of sports cars at the Rolex.

IMSA Photo

Welcome to the Rolex

Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin had a rough introduction to the Rolex 24 on board the LMP2 entry of Tower Motorsports.

Team principle and bronze driver John Farano heavily crashed the team’s ORECA-Gibson in qualifying. After a re-build, the water bottle leaked onto the ECU once the race started and it had to be replaced. But the “Bus Bros” got their laps.

The team completed 259 laps, two laps behind the four LMP2 entries on the lead lap at race’s end. They had some solace, finishing one lap ahead of fellow Team Penske driver Austin Cindric, who co-drove the entry of Rick Ware Racing.

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Corvette Racing finished second in GTD Pro.

IMSA Photo

Corvette Racing’s Work in Process

Corvette Racing’s conversion from its GTLM entries to the GT3 regulations continues as a work in progress.

With a three-year head start, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 proved to be more consistent and better balanced on the combined infield circuit and high banks of Daytona. After the Lexus RC F GT3 of Vasser Sullivan suffered front-end aero damage in a schlemozzle on one of the late-race re-starts, Corvette Racing’s C8.R GTD emerged from a three-car duel at the finish four seconds behind the winning WeatherTech Racing Mercedes.

“We started with a third-place car and finished second, so that’s a win in our book,” said Jordan Taylor.

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The BMW M Team RLL machine had a rough start to the GTP era.

IMSA Photo

BMW Sets Dubious Mark in GTP

The BMW M Hybrid V8 had the dubious distinction of being the first GTP to be taken to the garage—in the first hour – due to a problem with its battery pack.

Tom Blomqvist, after leading the first two hours, said it could have just as easily been his Meyer Shank Racing Acura that suffered the problem. “It’s the luck of the draw. It’s outside of your control. Everyone is praying on that one.”

The RLL’s garage crew had to wait for its car, which quit on the far side of the course, to get back to its garage. When the No. 7 Porsche had battery pack trouble, it was driven straight to the garage and re-emerged 35 minutes later with a new one—after losing 19 laps.

When the No. 6 Porsche car had gearbox issues, it went to the garage under electric power. All but three of the nine new GTPs visited the garage at some point in the race.

GTP Class Still Needs WEC Hypercars

The nine GTP entries at Daytona was half of the anticipated 18-car Hypercar entry at Le Mans. For convergence to truly work, in addition to teams like Cadillac, Porsche and BMW (in 2024) going to Le Mans, convergence will be incomplete until the Hypercars are racing on both sides of the Atlantic.

Jim France, chairman of the board at IMSA and the International Speedway Corporation that owns Daytona, said he believes that’s what will happen. “We’re just getting started,” he said of the prospects of Toyota, Ferrari and Peugeot racing in the Rolex

Ferrari recently tested its new 499P Hypercar at Sebring in advance of the IMSA/WEC doubleheader on the weekend of the Sebring 12-hour. In 2024, it’s unlikely the Hypercars and the World Endurance Championship will race on the same weekend at Sebring due to the WEC season opening at Qatar three weeks earlier.

When asked about a WEC race in the U.S. next year, Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de L’Ouest, which organizes Le Mans and the WEC, shrugged his shoulders. “We will see,” he said. …The WEC has previously run a doubleheader weekend at Circuit of the Americas.

Penske Bullish on GTP

Roger Penske predicts that privateers will be able to find sponsorship for their GTP entries due to the interest in the new category, which would help boost sales of the Porsche 963 as well as increase the fields. “I think this platform gives us an opportunity to reach out to other manufacturers and people who want to sponsor,” he said. “We can see that in the Porsche program, people that are involved at the dealership level and even the suppliers are stepping up where we didn’t see them before, might not see them in other forms of racing.”

Roller-Coaster Weekend for Winward

The big story in GTD in the early going was the charge from the rear of the field to the front by Russell Ward in the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. After a heavy crash in the opening practice, the team brought in last year’s Rolex-winning chassis from Houston and prepared it overnight with help from the Iron Lynx crew to get it on the grid.

Lucas Auer suffered fractured rear vertebrae in the incident at Turn 2 and underwent surgery after calling his teammates to wish them luck. GT4 driver Daniel Morad stepped in to fill out the driving line-up.

Hurley Haywood Anniversary

Hurley Haywood celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first five Rolex 24 victories in a Porsche Carrera co-driven with Peter Gregg.

Asked what the biggest change he’s seen in racing since then, Haywood did not hesitate. “The safety. In my era you were worried about getting killed. Once the race started, that went out the window. The cars were exciting, but they were difficult to drive and dangerous. Now the cars are indestructible and can bang into each other and keep going. The current drivers don’t know about danger. They can be a lot more aggressive and that sells tickets.”

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