IMSA has released a 59-car entry list for the “Roar Before the 24” at Daytona International Speedway — two days of testing starting on Friday, Jan. 19, followed by the qualifying session for the 22nd Rolex 24 At Daytona on Sunday, Jan. 21. While there will be some changes from the entry released today to the actual race participation, it is a close mirror of the field that will start the 24-hour race starting at 1:40pm ET on Jan. 25.
IMSA had initially released a 60-car entry for the Rolex 24 back in December, but he No. 91 KellyMoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3R was withdrawn earlier this week. The No. 92 KellyMoss with Riley entry had already moved from GTD PRO to GTD, and the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA 07 Gibson LMP2 entry is taking the place of the second MDK Motorsports GTD entry.
The list includes 10 GTP entries — two factory cars each from Acura (WTRAndretti), BMW (BMW M Team RLL), Cadillac Racing (Chip Ganassi Racing and Whelen Engineering Racing), and Porsche (Porsche Penske Motorsport), plus two privateer Porsche 963s from JDC-Miller MotorSports and Proton Competition. The GTPs will be joined by 13 LMP2s, 12 GTD PRO cars from 10 manufacturers, and 24 GTD entries with 11 manufacturers represented.
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The entry reflects several announcements that have come in the past few days, such as Alex Palou joining the No. 01 Chip Ganassi entry for Cadillac Racing. Palou is one of 10 current NTT IndyCar Series drivers on the roster, along with former IndyCar driver and current announcer for IndyCar and Formula 1, James Hinchcliffe, who is joining Pfaff Motorsports for the endurance races in their new McLaren 720S for GTD PRO. Other IndyCar drivers are Scott Dixon (Cadillac Racing), Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta (WTRAndretti) and Josef Newgarden (Penske) in GTP; Scott McLaughlin (Tower Motorsports), Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist (United Autosports) in LMP2; Alexander Rossi also in the Pfaff McLaren; and Romain Grosjean (Iron Lynx) and Devlin DeFrancesco (Forte Racing) filling entries in GTD.
Other additions for the Rolex include a couple of former F1 drivers, as is Grosjean, with world champion Jenson Button joining WTRAndretti in GTP and Felipe Massa in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports ORECA in LMP2.
With a number of TBDs on the drivers’ lists, the full lineup is yet to be seen. Those TBDs include one in the No. 18 Era Motorsport LMP2, one in the one-off No. 75 Sun Energy 1 Mercedes-AMG in GTD PRO, the full lineup for Lone Star Racing’s GTD-class Mercedes AMG and one in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports GTD Porsche.