The future has become the present and the No. 5 Action Express team with drivers, Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais, were right on time to win the first Rolex 24 At Daytona under the new Tudor United SportsCar Championship.
A late race caution closed the gap between the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette and the No. 5 Corvette but Max Angelelli didn’t have quite enough to catch Barbosa who piloted the final stint for the North Carolina-based team in the Prototype (P) class.
CORE autosport became the first Prototype Challenge (PC) team to win the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Veteran driver, Colin Braun, placed the No. 54 machine on the pole for the 24-hour race and with the help of Jon Bennett, Mark Wilkins and James Gue, drove the car across the finish line to receive the coveted, Rolex watch.
The GT Daytona (GTD) class was mired in controversy after a last-lap penalty placed the Flying Lizard Motorsports, No.45 Audi R8 LMS in victory lane. Upon further review by IMSA, the ruling was made to reinstate the No. 555 Level 5 Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia as the winner to round out the 2014 Tudor United SportsCar Championship debut at Daytona International Speedway.
While an additional tire manufacturer in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class introduced a new rubber compound onto the track, which was no match for the durability, consistency and performance of the Continental tires.
