The 2025 running of the Rolex 24 concluded Sunday afternoon, with Porsche Penske Motorsport taking home the overall win. Four separate classes raced simultaneously at Daytona International Speedway, with each having one car awarded as the winner and given a set of Rolex watches for their success. It was the second straight year in which a Porsche Penske Motorsport entry has won the Rolex 24.
Felipe Nasr closed out the race for the Porsche Penske Motorsport #7 car, battling fellow Porsche Penske driver Matt Campbell in the #6. Tom Blomqvist, driving the #60 car for Acura Meyer Shank, made it a three-way battle in the closing minutes. The two Porsches ran first and second for much of the closing stretch, but Blomqvist was ultimately able to overtake Campbell. The winning team was made up of Nasr, Nick Tandy, and Laurens Vanthoor.
The LMP2 class was won by the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca, the GTD Pro class was led by the #65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3, and the GTD class winner was the #13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06. The top seven finishers overall were in the GTP class, with the highest-finishing other class car being Tower Motorsports’ #8 entry.
For most of the race it seemed like BMW could secure their first Rolex 24 win since 1976, with the #24 BMW M Team RLL running top three until the final hour. Then, with under 40 minutes to go, contact with one of the Porsches resulted in front bumper damage that caused a race-ending tire-rub. The #24 car, driven at the time by Dries Vanthoor, was the pole winner and a heavy favorite before the race on Saturday.
Coming into the weekend, the two cars of Acura Meyer Shank Racing were optimistic given Acura as a whole had won three of the last four Rolex 24s. They took the 2021 race with Wayne Taylor Racing, before then winning 2022 and 2023 with Meyer Shank. Last year’s race was won by Porsche Penske Motorsport, which was Porsche’s first Rolex 24 triumph in 21 years.
Several top contenders saw their race end hours early, with multiple severe crashes occurring in the middle of the night. A six-car pileup in the Daytona road course eliminated the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, being driven at the time by World Endurance champion Louis Delétraz. The car had just recently been piloted to the lead by Kamui Kobayashi, another motorsports superstar with global success.
Another team of note was the all-female squad known as the Iron Dames, driving a Porsche 911 in the GTD division. Composed of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting, and Karen Gaillard, the team made their Rolex 24 debut after six entries into the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. The Iron Dames car finished 34th overall, good for 8th in their class.
Chris Gollon is a Flagler County resident since 2004, as well as a staple of the local independent music scene and avid observer of Central Florida politics, arts, and recreation.