IMSA Rolex 24 Hour 1: Vanthoor BMW leads most of first hour

Polesitter Dries Vanthoor in the #24 RLL BMW led the entire first hour (except for his pitstop) of the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Vanthoor took the lead at the green and was driving like it was a 2-hour sprint race, opening up a gap of over 14s ahead of the #93 MSR Acura with Nick Yelloly behind the wheel.

The #31 Cadillac of Jack Aitken ran third  ahead of the#60 Acura of Tom Blomqvist and the #7 Porsche with Felipe Nasr behind the wheel.

LMP2 saw multiple early incidents, including two off-course excursions from then-leader Ben Keating in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson.

It cost Keating the class lead to PJ Hyett, whose No. 99 AO Racing Oreca had a slightly lengthened first stop for attention to the left-front brake duct.

In GTD Pro The No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Dan Harper took over the lead in class, ahead of Mike Rockenfeller’s class pole-sitting No. 64 Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3, while Russell Ward led GTD in the #57 Mercedes.

2025 Rolex 24 Hour 1 Standings

04_Results by Hour_Race_Unofficial 04_Results by Hour_Race_Unofficial