Rolex 24 at Daytona, 2023: Live Blog
We couldn’t be more proud of this awesome foursome, who’ve just scored a fourth-place finish at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Mario’s charge over the final two-and-a-half hours from seventh spot had us all on our feet, Katherine and Marc never put a wheel out of line as they turned in relentless, consistent, fast laps all race long and Sheena… To put in that level of performance on your GT3 debut, at the biggest race in North America was simply stunning. This is going to be one heck of a season.
To all four of you aboard the #66 JG Wentworth car, to our incredible team members both trackside and back at base, to Acura and HPD (congratulations on your 1-2 result overall - stunning achievement on the debut of your new GTP car) and to all the staff at IMSA and Daytona International Speedway for making this event what it is, we say a huge thank you.
Thanks for reading the blog and for all the messages over social media. We’ll see you at Sebring.
CHEQUERED FLAG 🏁
A topsy-turvy final hour, but Mario came home fourth, just a handful of seconds from the podium. What a stunning charge; conclusive proof as to why you should NEVER GIVE UP even when you’re two laps down with a couple of hours to go.
10 to go
…or maybe not… Back into fourth place. Mario’s not giving up.
15 to go
Mario’s slipped back to fifth. Maybe the podium was just too much of a dream after all.
20’ to go
We’re green again and MARIO TAKES THIRD PLACE! Could this be an incredible podium finish?
35’ to go
A long FCY has closed up the field. We’re about to go green with Mario sixth and only five seconds to the GTD leader… IT’S CHAOS AT THE RESTART. Contact more or less everywhere, but Mario emerges in P4. YES. P4! We go into another FCY period.
HOUR 23
IT’S ALL CHANGED! For the second time in an hour we had a Full-Course Yellow fall at just the right time. The result was that Mario - following another fuel stop - cycled back onto the lead lap for the first time since yesterday afternoon. With 90 minutes to go we went green with the #66 JG Wentworth Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22 just five, yes FIVE seconds from the GTD lead. Mario then passed two cars in quick succession to climb to fifth, but pitted for a final top-up of fuel and fresh tires just before the 23-hour mark. He’s seventh, but with every opportunity to be higher when the top six make their final stops.
WATCH NOW on NBC if you’re in the USA or on IMSA.TV for the rest of the world. This is going to be some finish.
HOUR 22
FINALLY a caution period that works for us. Midway through the hour Katherine pitted under yellow to hand over to Mario, who will finish the race. This time we benefitted from the wave-by meaning we are now just one lap behind the GTD leader for the first time in eight hours. Better still, Mario’s less than 20s away from the #70 car in sixth spot.
HOUR 21
Three hours to go and - you guessed it - another badly-timed caution. This one wasn’t as bad as the others as it merely stopped us recovering a lap rather than costing us one. Katherine’s aboard and midway through her final scheduled stint. Seventh; two laps off the lead but less than a lap behind the #93 car in sixth. The record crowd are breakfasted (is that a word) starting to fill up the main stand now.
HOUR 20
Marc climbed in at the start of the hour for what should be his final stint (just as breakfast was being brought out too). No change of position as we continue to run this race of very few cautions. That’s great because it means more racing, but it also restricts the opportunity to reclaim of one of our lost laps from earlier.
If you are at the #Rolex24, there’s still time stop by @StyledAesthetic in the vendor village and pick up one of our new #66 t-shirts. pic.twitter.com/Hg9CSuN6MM
— Gradient Racing (@GradientRacing) January 29, 2023
HOUR 19
Mario gained a spot at the start of the hour as the #32 car went behind the wall. That meant that when Marc climbed aboard shortly afterwards, he did so in seventh spot. Right now we’re a lap behind the sixth-place #70 and a lap ahead of #1 so no unless Full-Course Cautions intervene, it’s just a case of making sure we reach the finish. Still the equivalent of two ‘regular-season’ races to go.
HOUR 18
The last hour of darkness as the sun begins to lighten the morning sky. Not a huge amount to report as Mario continues to circulate quickly and consistently aboard #66. Eighth spot with six hours to go. If we can hold on to this position, it will be a solid helping of points for Sheena and Katherine to kick off the season.
HOUR 17
Probably the least eventful hour of the race so far. Mario continues to do a sterling job in eighth, two laps off the lead. We’re not a million miles away from sunrise and we know that a well-timed caution (well, two actually) could change the entire outlook for the #66 JG Wentworth Acura. Better news, we’ve just had a load of mega images drop from our photographers around the track, so we’ll set to work updating the gallery.
HOUR 16
Two-third distance and Katherine has been pumping in an extremely fast stint aboard the #66 JG Wentworth Acura as she continued to hold eighth spot. A caution within the next 20 minutes (before the next fuel stop) would almost certainly reduce the deficit to the leaders to a single lap, while a caution in the 20 minutes after that would probably lose us another one. Knife-edge stuff, this endurance racing.
HOUR 15
Sometimes you can’t buy a break. After spending hours waiting for a Full-Course Caution to help us regain the lead lap, we got one… but agonisingly it came AGAIN, just moments after we’d made a green-flag stop to allow Katherine to climb aboard. Result; instead of gaining a lap, we lost ANOTHER one. We maintain eighth spot in GTD, but with the top seven all on the lead lap, it will be tough to race our way to the front from here. Never say never though. Nine hours still to go.
HOUR 14
Another one ticked over and we’re still waiting for that magic caution period that could help us regain the lead lap. Marc’s been ripping it up on track and has reduced the gap to the #44 car in seventh spot to under a minute. Hard to believe there’s still 10 hours to go. Lots of drama to come, we’re certain.
HOUR 13
So impressed with the number of people at Daytona this week. We’re told it’s a record crowd for the event and it feels like it. If you’re not here, this one has to be on your bucket list. Incidentally, never watch the movie ‘The bucket list’. Despite starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, It’s terrible (you can tell it’s gone 3am, can’t you?). Marc remains eighth and runs just off the lead lap, aiming to take advantage of any potential upcoming caution period.
HOUR 12
While one team member laments finding out that Sheena Monk wasn’t, in fact, named after Ramones track ‘Sheena is a Punk Rocker’ (as she clearly rocks based on her stints so far), we reach halfway, one lap off the lead and in eighth spot. Bulletproof reliability from the JG Wentworth Acura so far.
HOUR 11
The run through Midnight and in to Sunday was conducted by Sheena Monk. We chose this moment to deliver the bombshell news that she is named after a Scottish Pop Star!
Fun Fact: @sheenamonk_ revealed to us during the Roar Before the 24 that she was named after the hugely successful pop singer from Lanarkshire, Sheena Easton.
— Gradient Racing (@GradientRacing) January 29, 2023
This is the greatest thing we have ever heard! pic.twitter.com/6v2tavReyj
HOUR 10
This stage of the race was all about our favorite Italian plumber/German GT Ace, ‘Super’ Mario Farnbacher. He ran the #66 cars fastest laps of the race and, with the help of some timely Full Course Yellows, got us back on the lead lap.
Sheena is now back in the #66 JG Wentworth Acura NSX GT3 Evo22.
HOUR 8
‘Super’ Mario Farnbacher climbed aboard the #66 JG Wentworth Acura 18s behind his nearest rival and had halved the gap within 15 minutes as the Rolex 24 reached one-third distance. We are not on the lead lap, but we will be once the current varying fuel strategies all shake themselves out and as rival teams cycle their bronze drivers through.
HOUR 7
Sheena climbed back aboard early in the seventh hour for her first race stint after dark and instantly closed in on the leader when a Full-Course Caution period was declared. Almost half an hour at slow speeds prevented much a rhythm being established, but the race was green at the turn of the hour with Sheena 11th with 40s to make up.
HOUR 6
Things continued to tick along nicely with Katherine holding eighth spot around 75 seconds away from the GTD lead. Katherine’s been setting the #66 Acura’s fastest laps of the race in the cooler night-time track conditions and battling hard with the #93 Acura.
EARNING HIS ‘BREAD’
Stock Car racer Brad Perez (‘Bread’ to you and us) is spotting for us at the Rolex (and probably feeling the cold now as night has set in). He’s also been vlogging away on his YouTube channel. Check out his vlog from last weekend’s ‘Roar before the 24’.
HOUR 5
The progress continued with Katherine now behind the wheel and climbing to fifth spot as the sun set at Daytona. The lead is 45 seconds away and we’ve run caution-free for quite a while now.
RACE GALLERY
Like the photos you see on this blog? We’ve just added a new batch to our gallery on Facebook, courtesy of the extremely talented Halston Pitman, Jon Bennett. and Josh Snider.
HOUR 4
Another hour, another caution. We took the opportunity to top Marc off with fuel during the slow-speed running. More or less everyone else did too, meaning minimal changes of position. Marc reached the four-hour mark (pun intended) eighth in GTD with the leader only 20 seconds up the road. Katherine is due next in the car.
Hour-by-hour results
HOUR 3
The hour began with a long caution period, which closed the GTD field up considerably (as it will do time and time again during the 24 hours). We’ve gained as a result with Marc - who had already climbed to ninth spot thanks to an ultra-slick pitstop by the Gradient pit crew - now just 25 seconds away from the leader and involved in a four-way fight for sixth place.
Fantastic job by Sheena given first GTD race, on the banking and with 60 other chariots..... a rather good client too ;)
— andy blackmore (@andyblackmore) January 28, 2023
WHAT DO GOLF AND MOTORSPORT HAVE IN COMMON?
Drivers, of course. We didn’t bother wasting that one on our special guest this weekend; LPGA professional Pernilla Lindberg. The winner of both the Chevron Championship and the ANA Inspiration. She’s a big F1 fan - telling IMSA Radio during the second hour of the race that she was drawn to it via Drive to Survive - but is now in love with sportscar racing too. She’s rooting for us this weekend, having joined Sheena and Katherine at the HVLPGA in Orlando last week.
HOUR 2
Marc climbed aboard the car just moments before the two-hour mark arrived and resumed in 12th spot, a little over 90 seconds off the race lead. Sheena’s second stint was just as strong as the first as the GT3 debutant lapped consistently in the 1m49s (having been in the 50s for most of the opening stint). Most teams have made a driver change at this round of stops, so expect to see the strategies start to equalise over the next four hours.
HOUR 1
Sheena’s first-ever GT3 race stint was an excellent one as she reached the hour-mark 15th in GTD, behind just one of the 10 cars in the class that opted to put their bronze driver in for the start! Very impressive indeed. There was an early caution, but plenty of opportunity to establish a consistent rhythm. We’re about 30 seconds off the lead and approaching our first pitstop, but expect to see gaps fluctuate a lot as the other cars cycle their bronzes through.
GREEN FLAG
We are underway for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Sheena makes a great getaway aboard the #66 JG Wentworth Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22 as she runs fourth - a spot ahead of where she qualified.
DID YOU KNOW?
While Sheena may be making her Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22 debut today, her co-drivers Katherine, Marc and Mario have amassed 92 starts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship between them and have won seven races and two Drivers’ crowns in GTD during that spell. Mario’s first win in the NSX was with Katherine, in fact, at Detroit in 2018. That experience will be invaluable over the next 24 hours…
ONE HOUR TO GO…
As our awesome foursome is introduced to the crowd it’s been decided that Sheena will be our starting driver for the race, going off from fifth on the GTD grid for her Rolex 24 debut.
SPOTTER GUIDE
The creative genius that is Andy Blackmore (he’s done our liveries for many years) has released the latest of his annual Rolex 24 spotter guides. Download yours absolutely free right here so you know exactly who it is we’ve just overtaken.
HOW TO WATCH
If you’re in the 🇺🇸 it’s like this:
NBC - 1:30pm - 2:30pm (Sat), 12:00pm - 2:00 (Sun)
USA Network - 2:30pm - 8:00pm; 10:00-11:59pm (Sat); 6:00am-12:00pm (Sun)
Peacock - Flag-to-flag streaming
And if you’re anywhere else across the globe, it’s IMSA TV for uninterrupted coverage of the whole race (this is the one with the IMSA Radio commentary FYI).
HELLO! It’s the opening round of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and it’s also the longest race on the calendar and a truly iconic event. It is, of course, the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Today is race day and we’re thrilled to be part of an incredible-looking 61-car field for the race, which gets underway at 1:40pm ET.
To follow the fortunes of the #66 JG Wentworth HPD Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22, driven by Sheena Monk, Katherine Legge, Marc Miller and Mario Farnbacher, stay tuned to this blog - which will be constantly updated until the flag falls - and our social media channels.