After turning up with a heavily factory supported three-car effort, Audi pulled off its maiden Rolex 24 class victory in an impressive 1-2 sweep with its R8 GRAND-AM cars.

The battle in the production-based ranks came down to a fuel mileage race, with the class-leading No. 24 Alex Job Racing-entered Audi of Filipe Alburquerque retaining a narrow lead following a splash for fuel with seven minutes to go.

AJR team owner Alex Job, center, celebrates the GT class victory with his drivers. (Photo: Brian Cleary/GRAND-AM)

Alburquerque edged out defending class winner Rene Rast by 1.476 seconds, who made a late charge despite stretching the fuel mileage of his No. 52 APR Motorsport entry.

"We were not really dreaming aout the victory because we were one lap down two and a half hours to the end," Alburquerque said. "In the end, I was leading but I had to do a splash and dash so I didn't know how far back I would fall.

"I kept pushing but I then started having [gearbox] problems. I had to use the clutch, upshifting and downshifting, and took some risks."

The win for the Portuguese DTM pilot and co-drivers Oliver Jarvis, Edoardo Mortara and Dion von Moltke gave Audi its elusive first Daytona crown, capping off a remarkable 12 months for the German manufacturer, which took key endurance victories at Le Mans, Sebring, Spa and the Nurburgring last year.

Veteran team owner Alex Job, who had a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car that also contended for the victory, was overcome with emotions after earning his second Rolex 24 class win but the first for Audi.

"I had no team orders," Job said. "My goal was to win, No. 1 for WeatherTech, No. 2 for AJR, and do the right job for both brands. I explained that to Porsche and I explained that to Audi. We went after it that way.

"It was a little anti-climatic at the end. We didn't finish 1-2. The Audi clearly had the speed and was positioned to win. We were on a different strategy with the other car and it didn't quite work."

AJR's Porsche entry of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Damien Faulkner, Marco Holzer and Cooper MacNeil finished sixth in class.

APR's Rast, Frank Stippler, Marc Basseng and Ian Baas came home second, benefitting from the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Audi of Markus Winkelhock, which ran out of fuel on the final lap. It would have otherwise resulted in a sweep of the podium for the R8 teams.

The No. 69 AIM Autosport Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am of Emil Assentato, Mark Wilkins, Emil Assentato, Nick Longhi and last-minute sub Craig Stanton was third after after enjoying time out front as well.

Alessando Pier Guidi, Alessandro Balzan, Marco Frezza and Olivier Beretta recorded a fourth place finish in class, despite a stop-and-hold-plus-60-second penalty given to Pier Guidi following contact with Wilkins while battling for the class lead in the 20th hour.

Magnus Racing was the highest-placed Porsche team in fifth, leading a class-high 250 laps of the race but losing out on the fuel mileage race. The No. 30 MOMO/NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, another contender, retired by noon-time on Sunday following suspension failure.

Top honors in the GX class, making its debut this weekend, went to Napleton Racing, which took a flag-to-flag victory with its self-developed Porsche Cayman.

Sports car veterans David Donohue and Shane Lewis teamed with Dr. Jim Norman and Nelson Canache in the Chicago area-based team's entry, which enjoyed a flawless run, leading home a 1-2-3 for the Caymans in class.

"We did push pretty hard for a long time through the night," Donohue said. "I wasn't pushing towards the end, obviously, but I think it's a testament to Porsche and the Cayman.

"Each of these cars were independently built by small shops, and probably Napleton is the biggest shop because it's an actual Porsche dealership and they've got a lot of experience with the Cayman InterSeries that they've been working on for years.

"For us, it was a race of preparation and our guys did a superior job."

The No. 22 Bullet Racing Cayman came home 10 laps behind in second, with the BGB Motorsports machine third after suffering axle issues in the early morning.

All three of the debuting Mazda6 entries retired early, with the No. 70 SpeedSource and No. 25 Freedom Autosport cars losing a cylinder in the first hour and the No. 00 Visit Florida dropping out with a rear main seal failure in the fourth hour.

Next up for the Rolex Series is the championship's first trip to the new Circuit of the Americas, scheduled for Feb. 28 - March. 2.

RESULTS: 51st Rolex 24 at Daytona

John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at