DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Andy Lally joked this week that part of the reason he has decided the weekend’s Rolex 24 At Daytona will mark his farewell as a regular IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver is that he doesn’t ever want to be perceived as slowing down or missing a beat.
With five Rolex 24 class victories, 34 IMSA wins, a record 110 podium finishes and three IMSA championships in one of the most highly decorated careers in sports car history, the 49-year-old Lally has nothing to worry about.
In fact, he and the No. 44 Magnus Racing team are a perpetual favorite when it comes to the weekend’s 24-hour season-opener on the Daytona high banks.
And just for good measure, he’s going full-in in his last Rolex weekend – doubling up with longtime teammate Spencer Pumpelly for Friday’s four-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge season-opener as well as the year’s twice-around-the-clock Rolex classic.
Lally, who was recently named president of the Trans-Am Series, will share the No. 38 BGB Motorsports Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS with Pumpelly and Thomas Collingwood, set to roll off 14th in the 27-car Grand Sport (GS) class field.
Pumpelly has had fun teasing that Lally’s leaving the cockpit because he (Pumpelly, pictured with him in 2017 when they were in different teams) is just plain faster than Lally now – which elicits a huge laugh from Lally – who just increased his record Rolex 24 podium grand total to 16 in 2023 when the Magnus team was runner-up in the GTD class.
“One of the best parts of being teamed with him (Pumpelly) is there are some parts of our driving styles that are super similar and funny enough we both tend to always like the same car, but there are definitely things we do quite differently at the controls, so it’s usually a compromise,” Lally says of sharing the GTD class No. 44 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo with Pumpelly, and another longtime co-driver and friend John Potter and Nicki Thiim. Potter qualified the car 12th in GTD on Thursday in the 22-car class.
“On the competition side and the friendly side, we push each other and turn things up,” Lally continued. “And internally it will force each other to go faster just because we’re competitive with each other. It’s one thing I love about what this whole Magnus group has done, and it’s been a bedrock.”
The weekend’s Magnus Racing entry will feature an ode to the team’s Rolex success in its paint scheme – a look at its “15ish Years” of competition which included the class victory in the 2012 50th anniversary running of this world-renowned sports car race – one of Lally’s favorite wins and most beloved memories in his 23 consecutive race starts on the Daytona road course.
“The 50th is special because back then it was just two classes, and that meant, I think, it was the biggest class ever in the history of Rolex,” Lally said. “So to win the biggest ever class – it was like 30-40 cars. … of the five (I’ve won), that’s probably one of the most, if not the most, special because it’s the biggest one.
“The biggest class ever at the biggest race ever, we won that class. So that’s really special.”
