The 2025 24 Hours of Daytona, as usual, held many surprises in GT with teams having to adapt to the new torque sensors in place this year.
BMW, Ford, Porsche and Corvette were the four most prominent brands throughout the race. If there was a time when the GTDs came to play spoilsport among the GTD PROs, it was quite different this year at the Daytona International Speedway. This year, the GTD PROs clearly dominated the GTs in the GTD class (nine GTD PROs ahead of the victorious GTD).
Once again, everything came down to the final and the first 23 hours did not do much for the victory. We had to survive and stay within the leader’s lap. A habit at Daytona!
Starting from the first row, the Ford Mustang GT3 of Frédéric Vervisch, Christopher Mies and Dennis Olsen managed to hold off the competition in the final. Both Fords finished on the podium with Mike Rockenfeller, Sebastian Priaulx and Austin Cindric taking 3rd place.
In the last half hour, the Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims, Daniel Juncadella and Antonio Garcia caused trouble but fell short by 1.9s.
The last neutralization regrouped the leading peloton and there is no point in making any predictions at the start of the last 40 minutes. The last restart heated things up with contact between the Porsche / AO Racing, the Mercedes / GetSpeed and the No. 4 Corvette.
The contact ended the Porsche/AO Racing’s hopes of victory with Laurin Heinrich forced to let his guard down and lose places.
It all came down to the Ford Mustang GT3 of Dennis Olsen, the Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims and the BMW M4 GT3 EVO / Paul Miller Racing of Kelvin van der Linde. The South African was then pushed into a spin by Nico Varrone’s Corvette who suffered a drive through in the final minutes of the race (7th under the checkered flag).
The top 5 is completed by the #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO / Paul Miller Racing and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 / GetSpeed.
Photo : LAT
Very discreet during the race, the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 / The Heart of Racing of Mattia Drudi, Tom Gamble, Casper Stevenson and Zacharie Robichon came out of the woods at the end of the race to clash with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R / AWA. Drudi and Bell played door to door.
-Ultimately it was the American GT which had the last word. The Rolex therefore goes to Orey Fidani, Marvin Kirchhöffer, Lars Kern and Matt Bell. The Porsche 911 GT3 R / Wright Motorsports of Güven, Adelson, Sargent and Skeer took second place, ahead of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 / The Heart of Racing of Mattia Drudi, Tom Gamble, Casper Stevenson and Zacharie Robichon.
Sixth place for the Aston Martin / van der Steur Racing of Hasse-Clot and Robin, two places ahead of the Porsche 911 G3T R / Iron Dames.
Ferrari, a year without…
With eight Ferrari 296 GT3s at the start, including only one in GTD PRO, the Italian brand had little chance of succeeding Risi Competizione in GTD PRO anyway. Ferrari was never able to go for victory even though Inception Racing showed good things in GTD before giving up.
For its GTD PRO debut at Daytona, DragonSpeed leaves with 6th place. On the GTD side, AF Corse and the No. 50 Ferrari driven in particular by rookie Arthur Leclerc had to be content with 7th place.
Lamborghini, copy to be reviewed in GTD PRO…
The performance is not much better on the San’Agata Bolognese side. Pfaff Motorsports had a good start to the race before experiencing a first wheel nut problem at the first stop. An early evening accident ended the hopes of the cutting-edge Lamborghini. It was from Wayne Taylor Racing that the best performance of a Huracan GT3 EVO2 in GTD was supposed to come, but the start of the last hour was fatal to the No. 45 stopped on the circuit (suspension). Abandonment also for Forte Racing which was running Franck Perera.
Tommy Milner, the Sunday morning madman…
The late morning saw the middle finger of the race with a rightly furious Tommy Milner as the Corvette driver battled for the lead with the EVO/Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Connor De Phillippi . The second BMW / Paul Miller Racing of Augusto Farfus entered the duel by clearly blocking the Corvette driver who made contact with the other BMW and damaged the rear of the Z06 GT3.R, resulting in a sign of discontent from Tommy Milner.
Lexus suffered in this 2025 edition with a retirement (GTD) and a place outside the top 10 in GTD PRO.
