The 2025 24 Hours of Daytona is underway, and I’m here to document the race and my experience as a sportscar fan over the course of the 24 hours. With updates every three hours, I hope to tell this legendary race’s story as the platinum era continues into 2025.

As the hour began, Nick Tandy’s lead vanished as the two BMW GTP’s closed in. The first proper battle for the overall lead emerged, with Tandy jostling against both Phillip Eng and Rene Rast.

Fifteen minutes into the hour, the GTP pitstops occurred, with Nick Tandy’s opening stint ending in the lead, as he handed over to Laurens Vanthoor. The no.93 Acura, still driven by Kakuoshin Ohta was now second as the BMW’s overcut attempt saw Kevin Magnussen officially return to an IMSA race for the first time since 2021, Nico Pino began his GTP career with Proton and Robin Frijns took over the other BMW GTP. Vanthoor now lead from Nico Pino, stepping into the no.5 proton car running second ahead of the BMW’s. Porsche now held the top three places on track.

Forte Racing came in from the lead with a rather rare pitstop occurrence – after losing their right wing mirror, the crew opted to replace the entire door, as Parker Kligerman took over the no.78 Lamborghini.

The rest of the first hour was surprisingly quiet, with the race settling down as it headed into golden hour, and the paddock prepared for the oncoming night.

The drama returned as a real contender for overall victory, the no.93 Acura stopped on track with damage to the right rear. Alex Palou had been riding the kerbs as he rounded the course but this gave the car, which had experienced minor issues all race, broke its driveshaft and stopped on track, forcing the car to be towed to the pits.

At the same time, the no.12 Tower Motorsports LMP2 spun of its own accord. With the full course yellow summoned, a few GTP’s dived into the pits including both BMW’s, who took only fuel. Magnussen and Frijns both stayed at the helm of the two cars that so far had been running strongly all race. They did lose time to those around them, who’d pitted before the FCY came out including Vanthoor’s no.7 Porsche that now led overall and the no.31 Cadillac of Felipe Drugovich.

On the restart it was Drugovich who held the lead ahead of Laurens Vanthoor as Scott Dixon climbed up to third in the no.60 Acura as Ayhancan Guven retook the lead with the no.120 car in GTD. Ford’s stronghold in GTD Pro was broken by a no.48 Paul Miller Racing car that had recovered from a drive through penalty earlier in the race and in LMP2 the no.99 was still in first, Dane Cameron at the helm.

GTD meanwhile was a constant battle over the next hour of the race, with the traffic affecting the overall lead battle. On the banking in NASCAR’s turn 2, Kamui Kobayashi took the race lead from Kevin Estre in the no.40 Cadillac.

The no.24 BMW then came in for an unscheduled pitstop with Kevin Magnussen, after having struggled on cold tires early in his stint and lost a lap, which he quickly regained. The battle raged on between Kobayashi’s Cadillac and Estre’s Porsche into the night.

After a myriad of issues, the no.75 Express Mercedes once again went behind the wall just past the 5th hour. Shortly afterward it became the second official retirement of the race, before the no.12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus received a black flag for a broken rear window.

The next car to suffer issues as the night drew on was the no.44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin, Andy Lally drawing the car to a halt from 4th in class, bringing out the race’s third full course yellow as oil spilled from underneath.Sneaking in before the FCY came out, the no.24 pitted to change tyres after a puncture and Kevin Magnussen handed the car over to Raffaele Marciello, who came out in tenth and last in the GTP class, save the Lamborghini and no.93 Acura that were out of contention.

As we hit the six hour mark under full course yellow, Raffaele Marciello leads on pit strategy in the no.24 BMW ahead of the no.31 Cadillac, while in LMP2 it’s still Spike (AO Racing’s no.99 car) who leads. GTD Pro is currently headed by Connor Di Philippi in the no.48 Paul Miller Racing and in the GTD (non pro) class its Inception racing’s Frederick Schandorff piloting the no.70 Ferrari in the lead. 

As the night draws on its going to be really fun to see who can survive this hectic race, and stay in contention into the early hours of the morning.

thumbnail credit – Osajus Photography from Asheville, NC, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons