Lamborghini Earns First Ever 24-Hour Win at Daytona

The weekend of racing at Daytona may have been a forgettable one for VW and Audi (DNFs and a race-killing penalty), but for the fellas over at Sant’Agatha Bolognese, it was one for the books.

Not only did Grasser Racing Team’s Lamborghini Huracan recover from a dream-crushing penalty, they went on to win Lamborghini’s first ever 24-hour victory.

“It’s a big day for us, definitely. Coming from the back of the field, makes it even more special, I guess,” driver Mirko Bortolotti told motorsport.com. “I don’t know if this happened before but I don’t care – coming from last position, winning such an important race, it’s great.”

The #11 Huracan was competing in the GT Daytona class with drivers Rolf Ineichen, Frank Perera, and Bortolotti behind the wheel when it failed a mandatory stall test after qualifying.

That failure meant that the lime-green Huracan had to start from the back of the pack. Undeterred by this setback, the team set to work crawling its way back up the timing sheet. Crawling is the wrong word, actually, because by the end of the first hour of racing, they were back in the top five and by the 12-hour mark, they were leading the class.

From there it was a fairly straightforward path to victory, with efforts by the second-place Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX to take over the lead scuppered by Grasser Racing Team’s steady speed and reliability.

By the time the checkered flag waved, the Huracan had set the fastest lap in the class and amassed a lead of nearly 17 seconds.

“Now we are in Daytona, this is special, really, really special. It’s a big dream, I think, of everybody to win here in Daytona,” Ineichen told motorsport.com. “We did it now. We did it for Lamborghini, and we’re really proud of that.”

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