Part of the fun and excitement of the first race of any season is seeing what teams do with their liveries. In the case of IMSA WeatherTech Championship teams, it was “Will they show up at Daytona with roughly the same scheme as they left Road Atlanta? Or will they improve what they had before?” And, meanwhile hoping no one shows up with a car that looks like it was attacked by a five-year-old with a flat black rattle can.
Fortunately there is precious little flat black (and Smooge Racing’s GT4 Toyotas in Michelin Pilot Challenge differentiated by glossy and flat black are nicely done), and plenty of color. Here are some of the new liveries making their their debut at this weekend’s Roar Before the 24 at Daytona:
GTP, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti
With WTRAndretti adding a second car, fans were curious what the No. 40 would look like. A few days before the Roar Before the 24, the team revealed a striking red and black livery. The No. 10 retains its blue-and-black, but both cars have the same design.
GTP, Proton Competition
It’s not a big departure from past Mustang Sampling liveries — which is a perfectly good reason to love the classic gold-on-black scheme.
LMP2, AO Racing
Already trying to stomp the competition in GTD PRO with a T-Rex, AO Racing went with a purple dragon theme for its LMP2, complete with scales. Nicknamed “Spike,” hopefully it’s not a fire-breathing dragon.
LMP2, Era Motorsport
Era has never been shy about colorful liveries, even running a “crayon” scheme designed by a 6-year-old for a couple of races in 2021. For 2024, Era introduced a striking blue, purple and white design at Daytona.
LMP2, United Autosports No. 2
Ben Keating carried his Wynn’s livery to United Autosports, but the orange seems to pop just a bit more. Speaking of orange ….
LMP2, CrowdStrike Racing by APR
The red on the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR has given way to a more orange shade that should really shine under the lights.
GTD PRO, Pfaff Motorports
The No. 9 McLaren naturally wears papaya. But fear not, plaid aficionados — there’s a tribute to the Canadian team’s past lumberjack liveries in the darker tones.
GTD PRO and GTD, Vasser Sullivan Racing
The team sticks with its highlighter yellow and black, but with a more dynamic design.
GTD PRO, Ford Multimatic Motorsports
The livery was already revealed when the new Mustang GT3 hit the track at last month’s IMSA homologation test at Daytona, but the shades of blue with a bit of red, along with the prominent mustang silhouette, deserves a call-out.
GTD, Korthoff/Preston Motorsports
The team has kept its color scheme on its No. 31 Mercedes AMG GT3, but applied it in a radically different way, designed by driver Mike Skeen. Skeen has an associate’s degree in visual arts and has dabbled in art over the years.
“Last year we felt like it wasn’t eye-catching enough,” explains Skeen. “It kind of blended in with the field and the track and had a little bit too much gray. So we’ve tried to brighten it up a little bit and make it a little bit more eye-catching. Hopefully the fans will like it and it will make it on TV a little bit more.”
GTD, AWA
The No. 13 features a familiar scheme on a Corvette, black and yellow. But the No. 17 is a complete departure from anything we’ve seen on a Corvette, or really any other car, in a long time. Predominantly a pearlescent shade of teal, it features a red and off-white stripe and accents, including an off-white number meatball. It’s absolutely stunning.
GTD, Inception Racing
It’s still the familiar red-and-black color scheme, but the team has added some pattern to the red to make it more visually interesting.