Dirk Müller brought home the #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing to win the GTLM Class in the 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona after a late race move on James Calado and the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari heading into turn one.
The German, who shared the car with Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais, banged doors with his British rival in the manoeuvre, but there was no denying that Ford had great pace throughout the event, regardless of the weather conditions that the drivers faced.
Müller joked that he would not have wanted to take over the car from himself at the end of the race after the move on Calado, but was delighted to take the chequered flag first at the end of an epic GTLM battle that saw seven cars in race winning contention until the very end.
“I have to thank my team-mates here,” Müller said. “To follow up to things Chip [Ganassi, Team Boss] is always saying in our meetings, hand the car over as you would have it.
“We’re lucky I don’t have to hand the car over, because there’s a little scratch on the right-side mirror now from my move with the Ferrari (laughter), but what a race. Joey said it. I think to sit here is a big honour because we managed to win a very challenging race. I think the whole team a fantastic job.”
