DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - It’s not just the sophistication and technical relevance of the cars competing in the Rolex 24 At Daytona this week that has piqued interest in the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship opener to heights unseen in years.
It’s also the outstanding list of drivers from all over the world who will battle for 24 hours for the right to earn one of the most prestigious prizes in motorsport.
The 61st running of the twice-around-the-clock spectacle at Daytona International Speedway features the rebirth of the heralded Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class, but with a major state-of-the-art twist. The nine prototypes entered in GTP contain an electrified hybrid powertrain system paired with an internal combustion engine designed by each of the four global auto manufacturers. The anticipation for the actual racing debut of these forward-thinking machines has been, well, electric.
Four other competition classes will be in the heralded race as well – Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3), GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and GT Daytona (GTD) – making for a jam-packed field of 61 cars (appropriate for the 61st running) eager to get started in what’s considered a traditional worldwide kickoff for the racing season. And with the list of drivers and teams involved, it’s no wonder that the Rolex 24 grabs international attention.
Of the 234 drivers on the entry list, 62 are past Rolex 24 overall or class winners. More than three dozen have conquered the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There are three past Indianapolis 500 winners and even the reigning Daytona 500 champion from NASCAR.
NBC Sports has complete race coverage beginning on NBC network at 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday. Stints will follow on USA Network (2:30-8 p.m. Saturday; 10-11:59 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m.-noon Sunday) before returning to NBC for the dramatic conclusion from noon-2 p.m. Sunday. Peacock, IMSA’s livestream home, has flag-to-flag coverage of all 24 hours in the U.S. The international livestream is available in most countries outside the U.S. at IMSA.com/TVLive. IMSA Radio also has complete coverage.
Five Classes, Each Racing For Rolex Watches
Four of the five winning teams from the 2022 Rolex 24 return in their classes, though each has gone through some change and the competition level has been raised across the board:
Grand Touring Prototype (nine cars entered): Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian used the win last year in the discontinued Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class as a springboard to the season championship. Now the No. 60 starts anew with the new hybrid-based car, the No. 60 Acura ARX-06, and things appear promising. Tom Blomqvist converted a last-lap dash to win the Motul Pole Award in qualifying on Sunday; that after the No. 60 sat atop the speed chart for most of the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test sessions.
Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud return to defend the 2022 victory, with Colin Braun filling out the lineup as Blomqvist’s season-long co-driver. Competition will be stiff, however, as Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport races its own Acura ARX-06, Porsche Penske Motorsport enters a pair of Porsche 963s, BMW M Team RLL has two BMW M Hybrid V8s, and Cadillac enters three cars – two from Chip Ganassi Racing and a third from Action Express Racing.
Le Mans Prototype 2 (10 cars entered): The winning team from a year ago (DragonSpeed USA) isn’t back, but two of the winning drivers are. Eric Lux and Devlin DeFrancesco have moved to the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing ORECA LMP2 07, where they’re joined by Formula 1 driver Pietro Fittipaldi and Austin Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 winner.
WeatherTech Championship LMP2 season champion John Farano is back in the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA and has aligned himself with a trio of impressive open-wheel drivers in Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin and Kyffin Simpson. And never overlook Ben Keating and the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry. Keating claimed the LMP2 Motul Pole Award on Sunday and leads the two-time reigning IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup class champions.
Le Mans Prototype 3 (nine cars entered): Riley Motorsports is seeking a Rolex 24 three-peat in this class, as is driver Gar Robinson in the No. 74 Ligier JS P320. Felipe Fraga joined Robinson in last year’s win and they’ll have a pair of new co-drivers this year in Glenn van Berlo (younger brother of Kay, who was part of the No. 74 winner in 2022) and Josh Burdon.
Other LMP3 entries to watch include: the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier, whose lineup includes four-time Rolex 24 winner Joao Barbosa and won the LMP3 pole behind 18-year-old Nico Pino; the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier that won the ’22 season finale, the Motul Petit Le Mans; and the No. 85 Duqueine D08 from JDC-Miller Motorsports, which is using this race as a tune-up while the team awaits delivery of its Porsche 963 GTP car later this spring.
GT Daytona Pro (10 cars entered): Variety is the spice in this GT3-specification class, with eight manufacturers represented. The race-winning Pfaff Motorsports team returns, but with a completely new driver lineup (Klaus Bachler, Patrick Pilet and Laurens Vanthoor) and a new 992 generation version of the Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Fan favorite Corvette Racing looks to reclaim the top of the Rolex 24 podium after last winning in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class in 2021. The No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD drivers – Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner – are all past winners of the race.
Maro Engel, a past Rolex 24 winner himself, put the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 on the class pole in qualifying, though it will start the race behind three GT Daytona (GTD) cars that turned faster laps. A late revision to the entry list finds the No. 53 MDK Motorsports Porsche, originally slated to compete in GTD, moving to the GTD PRO class. The MDK lineup is anchored by four-time IMSA season champion and four-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jan Magnussen.
GT Daytona (23 cars entered): The largest class in the field returns the defending winner in Wright Motorsports and three drivers from that No. 16 Porsche – Ryan Hardwick, Jan Heylen and Zacharie Robichon. Dennis Olsen fills out the four-driver roster.
But with so many entries and eight manufacturers involved, it’s a crapshoot determining who may be the favorite. Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini each have new or updated cars making their racing debuts. How will they fare over the grueling 24 hours?
Winward Racing has three-quarters of the lineup back that won in GTD at the 2021 Rolex 24 in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 – Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje. Ellis roared to the overall GT pole in qualifying on Sunday.
Paul Miller Racing is back after missing last year’s race and has a trio of former winners for the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 in Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Corey Lewis. Andy Lally, the active leader in Rolex 24 wins with five, heads the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 lineup with two more past winners in John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly. They finished second a year ago.
Iron Dames features an all-female lineup in the No. 83 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, while Gradient Racing boasts two women familiar to IMSA for the full season – Katherine Legge and Sheena Monk – and paired them with two standouts in Mario Farnbacher and Marc Miller for the Rolex 24.
The action should be stout throughout the field and throughout the 24 hours.
