Rolex 24 Recap

So it's been about a week since the checkered flag was waved upon Daytona International Speedway, seeing the Tequila Patron ESM Team cross the line, winning their first Rolex 24 victory.  The LMP2-powered team, featured former IndyCar driver Scott Sharp (who now drives in the World Endurance Championship), Johannes van Overbeek, Ed Brown and newcomer Pipo Derani, who dominated every time he was in the car throughout the entire, race.  Derani alone led nearly 160 of the 736 laps completed.  Coming in 2nd was the Wayne Taylor Racing 10 car (featuring Max Angelelli, Rubens Barrichello, Jordan Taylor & Ricky Taylor), while the Spirit of Daytona Racing 90 car (featuring IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay) was 3rd.  However, in the closing hours, lot of the competition had their own issues.  Both Ganassi Racing prototype entries had mechanical issues (the 02 had brake issues early on, but a crash into the barrier ended the hopes), while the Michael Shank Racing 60 car saw an engine failure nearly halfway into the race. The Action Express cars both looked solid, but late-race drama took away a possible podium for the 5 car, while the 31 was already laps down.

I'm not going to break the entire race down.  It will take nearly 24 hours to do on here.  I'll just say that, with the exemption of the 5 hours worth of cautions, the green flag racing was exciting every minutes.  Tons of lead changes throughout the 4 classes, the nail-biting finish in the GTLM category which saw Corvette Racing take 1-2 overall, the competition in the GTD category which was so unpredictable on who will win, Pipo Derani's dominance, just to name a few.

In recent years, the Rolex 24 has had exciting races, but this one in 2016 takes the cake because of the action and the competition.  Question is how will the 2017 race be since the DP category ends after this year?  We will find out.

Welcome back to racing!