Mercedes-AMG Teams Finish Record-Setting Rolex 24 at Daytona
Mercedes-AMG team Riley Motorsports finishes fourth in No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in IMSA season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports finished fourth in the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in this weekend’s record-setting Rolex 24 At Daytona after frequently leading the GT Daytona (GTD) class and battling with the top-three finishers. All three Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams competing this weekend finished the fast-paced endurance race that saw the overall winner complete a record 808 laps for 2,876.34 miles on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway (DIS) road course.
Full-season co-drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen were joined by endurance race teammates Luca Stolz and Adam Christodoulou in keeping the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the hunt for the GTD class win in the season-opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race. All four drivers led multiple laps during their stints, with the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 unofficially leading the GTD field for 94 laps over the span of the race.
The No. 33 team came up just seconds shy of matching their third-place showing earned in the debut IMSA and Rolex 24 race for Mercedes-AMG last year, but did leave Daytona with a solid start in both the overall IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup (NAEC) standings.
In the NAEC rankings, the No. 33 and its drivers scored 13 points, just one point behind the team that finished second in GTD in the Rolex 24.
The No. 33 team was one of three Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams competing in this year’s Rolex 24, and the entire trio made it to the finish.
The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 took the checkered flag in a race-high eighth place after team drivers Kenny Habul, Thomas Jaeger, Maro Engel and Mikael Grenier fought through the field. It was the first Rolex 24 finish for the
SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 team after retiring with handling issues in last year’s race, which was the Daytona debut for SunEnergy1 Racing.