The inaugural VSCA SportsCar Championship season started off with a dramatic, down-to-the-wire race as Lone Wolf Motorsports and NReSports take victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona

After weeks and months of growing anticipation, test days and practice sessions, a field of 53 cars finally took the green flag for the first-ever VSCA event on Saturday at 1:45 pm local time at Daytona International Speedway.

The No. 76 Porsche of NReSports takes the checkered flag and wins the GT3 class at Daytona

Tuomas Mustanen in the No. 48 Dallara P217 of Iconic Motorsports led the P2 Prototype class field to the green flag, after posting the fastest lap in GRID Pole Qualifying at 1:32.762 , earning his team the first VSCA GRID Pole Award of the season.

In GT3, it was Steve Melo in the No. 158 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of RD Simsport, who took top spot honors in VSCA GRID Pole Qualifying with a lap of 1:43.451.

Early drama for Sim Racing Grid, Agee Motorsports among others

On the pacing lap, drama unfolded for the No. 23 Dallara P217 of Sim Racing Grid, as Dan McFarlane experienced technical issues, relegating the team to the very last position, more than half a lap behind the P2 Prototype field.

At the start both pole sitters were able to maintain their lead and both classes worked their way through turn one without major incidents, though the No. 67 Porsche of Kinetic Racing went for a short stroll into the grass to avoid contact in turn three.

On lap three, Jeroen Hannink hit the sausage curb hard in the bus-stop chicane. The Dutchman briefly lost control and saw his his No. 17 Agee Motorsports P2 class Prototype airborne after a hard impact with another LMP2 and into the safer barriers, resulting in severe damage on the Dallara P217.

After a lengthy repair stop, the No. 17 Agee Motorsports team still went on accomplish damage control by finishing the race in 13th place.

Great racing and many lead changes in opening hour

The opening hour saw the lead change five times in the P2 prototype class. On lap six the No. 10 machine of Race4Cat Motorsport with Marc Freixa behind the wheel for the first time took the lead, before surrendering it again to the No. 48 of Iconic Motorsports six laps later.

On lap 25 it was the No. 7 P2 Prototype of Element SimRacing taking the lead, albeit for just one lap before pitting.

In GT3, pole sitter Melo saw his rearview mirror full of the sight of the No. 151 FBP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of Evan Dietzold and Jayden Dixon in the No. 13 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Team FR13DA Sport.

The three-car battle continued throughout the opening hour of the race and on lap Dietzold eventually moved past Melo for the lead.

No. 151 Ferrari defies strong Porsche lineup early in GT3 class battle

FBP Racing and their No. 151 Ferrari team went on to dominate the race early on and led the race in the GT3 class for a total of 77 laps.

A rather curious incident occurred approximately 45 minutes into the race, when the No. 59 P2 class Prototype of Z-Challenger Calioth Racing spun on the pit exit road and backed into traffic, heavily damaging the No. 438 Dallara P217 of Blackdove Racing, who ended up 18th in the event with no championship points after failing to complete the required minimum number of laps.

The first full course yellow of the day came out just over three hours into the race and saw the No. 747 Dallara P217 of Lone Wolf Motorsports take the lead for the first time on the restart, with Pedro Gomez behind the wheel.

A lot of teams used the caution period to make pit stops and when the racing resumed, the P2 class battle for the lead heated up between the Lone Wolf Motorsports machine and Iker Estefania in the No. 51 Dallara P217 of World of SimRacing Team.

Bunching the field back together, the caution period intensified the GT3 class battle in the meanwhile with Sven Brötz and the No. 13 Porsche of FR13DA Sport keeping the No. 151 Ferrari and Michael Lebelt at bay on the restart and the laps that followed.

Big crashes, intense lead battles & disappointment during night hours

The sun started to set over northern Florida and Daytona Beach as the race started to enter the night hours. The track temperatures started to cool, but the racing heated up.

Just before the race hit the five-hour mark, a spectacular crash caught the attention of the spectators at turn one. Pier Armando Vender in the No. 17 Agee Motorsports P2 Prototype while on the brakes, hit the rear of the No. 87 Audi R8 LMS GT3 of WestWood Racing eSports hard, sending the car of Willem Haeger into the tire barriers with a lot of damage.

For WestWood Racing eSports the 24 Hours of Daytona had very little good in store as their Audi was involved in several incidents and lengthy repairs relegated the team to a disappointing P22 finish.

“Sometimes it’s just not your day. Or weekend, really, in our case. We’ve just had one issue after another and got hit quite a few times. It’s frustrating, because we felt like we had a good car. But we’ll come back at Sebring and try again.”, WestWood Racing eSports team manager Tim Spesser said, visibly disappointed after the race.

While in the lead and after holding the top spot for a total of 77 laps, the No. 151 FBP Racing Ferrari had a race-ending crash with a P2 class prototype during the night

They weren’t the only ones facing major disappointment. Showing tremendous pace and leading many laps, FBP Racing showed the speed and consistency to compete for the victory in the 24-hour endurance event in the GT3 class, proving doubters wrong who believed only Porsches would be capable of being competitive at Daytona.

While holding the GT3 class lead over the No. 77 Porsche of Shamrock SimRacing, Evan Dietzold in the No. 151 Ferrari of FBP Racing was startled when he was cut off by the No .43 P2 class prototype of Torque Freak Racing’s Treavor Vavrosky, sending the Ferrari hard into the wall, totalling the car and ending the team’s race early. Race control issued a stop & hold 1 lap penalty against the Torque Freak Racing machine, but for FBP Racing the race came to a bitterly disappointing early end, realizing the damage on the car was impossible to repair.

Two-car battle in GT3 at halfway mark, FCY interrupt race

At the halfway mark of the race, it was Element SimRacing and their No. 7 Dallara P217 holding the P2 class lead, capturing valuable points in the Endurance Cup, followed by the No. 14 of Fischer Motorsport USA.

In GT3, it was still the No. 13 Meguiars Porsche of FR13DA Sports Group out in front, as the team solidified its claim to be involved in the conversation who would win this race in the GT3 class.

As the race entered Sunday, the GT3 class battle evolved into a two-car fight between the No. 13 Porsche and the No. 76 Porsche of NReSports. After rolling off the grid from seventh place, the team had a rather quiet start into the race, but kept creeping towards the front, step by step and eventually lead for large portions of the night and early morning hours.

Another full-course yellow interrupted the action in hour 14 of the race. During pit stops under yellow, a bizarre situation took place on pit road as Dennis Erhardt in the No. 87 Audi missed the pit stall of his WestWood Racing eSports team and stopped on pit road.

Champion Motorsports’ Brett Stephens in the No. 78 BMW M4 GT3 directly behind, narrowly avoided Erhardt’s car but race control still ended up issuing a drive-through penalty against the No. 87 Audi team.

On the restart it was the No. 7 Prototype machine of Element SimRacing’s Joey Petrig, who showed a blistering pace all night long to keep the competition at a distance, led the P2 class field followed by the No. 747 of Lone Wolf Motorsports in second and the No. 51 World of SimRacing Team prototype in third place directly behind.

In GT3, NReSports maintained the lead and restarted out front with the No. 6 Porsche of Torque Freak Racing a close second with Jonathan Dance behind the wheel.

The No. 16 Porsche of Resolve Racing, who had to overcome a busy and at times difficult offseason including several changes in team management, were right behind in third place, staking their claim to be reckoned with when it matters. Shortly after the restart, Jackson Starrit gave Resolve Racing second place, even looking for the lead.

Early morning hours set up great finale

The No. 13 Meguiars Porsche of FR13DA Sports Group and No. 76 Porsche of NReSports put on an epic GT3 class battle in the early Sunday morning hours

At four o’clock in the morning local time, with just under ten hours remaining in the race, the Porsche works team No. 101 Porsche of PorscheSport suffered a devastating crash after contact with the No. 79 P2 class prototype of Thomas E Fisher on the Daytona Superstretch, heading into the bus-stop chicane.

The contact sent the GT3 machine out of control and PorscheSport pilot Richard Hearn was a passenger as he suffered a hard impact into the bus-stop chicane tire wall, adding severe damage to a race car that already was damaged from an earlier incident in hour five of the race, when it suffered a hard hit in turn six from the No. 91 BMW M4 GT3 of Sim Racing Grid.

“The 911 is such a blast to drive, especially at Daytona. But we weren’t very lucky in this race. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time too many times. We were trying as hard as we could to get back on the lead lap, but that crash really knocked us out. That was a hard hit.”, Hearn commented on the race upon exiting the car.

As the race entered its final stages, it was the No. 51 World of SimRacing Team, No. 747 Lone Wolf Motorsports and No. 79 Champion Motorsports Dallara P217 that kept exchanging the lead back and forth.

In total the race saw a staggering 79 lead changes in P2 class and 55 in GT3 class, setting VSCA off on a debut race that entertained teams, drivers and fans alike.

P2 Prototype and GT3 class wins come down to the wire

On lap 780, with under 30 minutes remaining in the race, Lone Wolf Motorsports’ Pedro Gomez took the lead for the final time and never looked back, taking the checkered flag to give Lone Wolf Motorsports victory in the biggest race of the season and marking them down in the history books as the inaugural race winners in VSCA history.

For the No. 51 World of SimRacing Team leading a race-high 241 laps was not enough, as they had to settle for second place in the 24 Hours of Daytona

Leading a race-high 241 laps was enough this weekend, but with plenty of reason to hold their heads high, World of SimRacing Team and their No. 51 car took second place, less than eight seconds behind.

Sim Racing Grid, who had a nightmare of a race with both their GT3 entries, was able to find consolation in a fantastic P2 class result and rounded out the podium by taking third place honors with Dan McFarlane, Alexander Morris and Michael Kondos in the No. 23 P2 prototype.

The decisive move in the battle for the win in GT3 class came on lap 681 when the No. 76 Porsche of NReSports took the lead following the pit stop of long-time leaders FR13DA Sports Group and their No. 13 Porsche, who led a race-high 314 laps.

Having the better strategy and race pace in the closing stages of the race, the NReSports Porsche with pilot Lennard Rau took the lead for the final time when the No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche pitted on lap 715, just about twenty minutes before the finish.

After that, the team from Biebesheim am Rhein, Germany went on to bring home the victory and take the checkered flag just 8.23 seconds in front of the No. 13 Meguiars Porsche of FR13DA Sports Group and 42 seconds ahead of Kinetic Racing’s No. 67 Porsche, that still got the podium finish despite the late pit stop.

The top-six finishers in GT3 all finished on the lead lap, but the rest of the GT3 class was marked by a lot of attrition in a race that saw plenty of drama.

The top-ten in P2 class were rounded out by Elemen SimRacing (No. 7), Champion Motorsports (No. 79), Fischer Motorsport (No. 14) , Albrecht Motorsports (No. 96), Rusty Spatulas (No. 112), pole sitter team Iconic Motorsports (No. 48) and Race4CAT Motorsport (No. 10).

In GT3 class, the rest of the top ten finishers were the No. 6 Porsche of Torque Freak Racing in fourth place followed by the no. 37 Hypra Racing Team Porsche, Riddle Rocket Racing No. 991 Porsche and the two Fischer Motorsport Porsche No. 85 and No. 84. The No. 83 Disco Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 and No. 101 PorscheSport Porsche took ninth and tenth place, respectively.

In total, the P2 class winners completed 800 laps, equaling 2,848 miles (4.560 km) and an average speed of 118.67 mph (189.87 kph) slowed by a total seven full-course cautions (2 hours 51 minutes under yellow flag conditions).

The VSCA SportsCar Championship will return to action at Sebring on March 26th for round two, the 12 Hours of Sebring.