IMSA announced Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 29) that the No. 8 ORECA 07-Gibson of Tower Motorsports has failed post-race inspection after last weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. As a result, drivers Sebastian Alvarez, Sebastien Bourdais, John Farano and Job van Uitert have been stripped of their class victory and moved to the rear of the LMP2.
According to IMSA, the No. 8 ORECA 07 was found to have “exceeded the maximum allowable wear to…the skid block.” What that effectively means is that the car was running too low during the race and bottomed out too many times. IMSA states that the limit is 5 millimeters of wear from new. It was not stated how much wear beyond that limit was observed.
Under Article 59 of the 2025 IMSA Sporting Regulations, Tower Motorsports protested the penalty. That protest has been denied, meaning that the stripping will stand.
When notified of the penalty, Bourdais was not pleased. He took to social media and posted this:
— Sébastien Bourdais (@BourdaisOnTrack) January 29, 2025
As a result of the penalty, the other 11 teams entered in the LMP2 class in Daytona all move up a position. That means that United Autosports’ No. 22 for James Allen, Paul di Resta, Dan Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh are the LMP2 class winners.
‘For di Resta, Goldburg and Lindh, this marks their first career class victories in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. For Allen, it is his second LMP2 class win at Daytona in the past three years. In 2023, he won LMP2 for Proton Competition in a photo finish over CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s Ben Hanley.
Their margin of victory was 6.716 seconds over Riley Motorsports’ Josh Burdon, Felipe Fraga, Felipe Massa and Gar Robinson. PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Mathias Beche, Ben Keating, Benjamin Pedersen and Rodrigo Sales were a lap down in third, then Era Motorsport’s Paul-Loup Chatin, Ryan Dalziel, David Heinemeier Hansson and Tobias Lutke. AO Racing’s Dane Cameron, Jonny Edgar, PJ Hyett and Christian Rasmussen ended up eight laps down in fifth.
The penalty also means that the drivers will lose points in the Michelin Endurance Cup. Regular season points are not offered in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in LMP2, so they won’t be hurt in the overall title chase.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.