IMSA has released the provisional entry list for the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona, with a full field of 61 entries across the four classes for the twice-around-the-clock season opener of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
That includes a record dozen entries in Grand Touring Prototype, the most since the new era of GTP began in 2023. With Cadillac expanding to three cars for the season, an entry from Proton Competition, and the first appearance of the Lamborghini SC63 in the 24-hour race, the field has expanded to its largest yet.
Gianmaria Bruni and Neel Jani are listed as driving Proton’s Porsche 963, while JDC-Miller’s 963 has Tijmen van der Helm and Bryce Aron. With Andrea Caldarelli in Pfaff’s new Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 in GTD PRO, Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara are nominated as driving the Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63.
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With the flurry of announcements in recent days as teams finalized their line-ups, there are few surprises among the entries, but still a lot of TBDs. For example, the entire line-up for both Vasser Sullivan Racing’s GTD PRO and GTD Lexus RC Fs, as well as both Paul Miller Racing’s GTD PRO BMW M4 GT3 Evo entries, are TBD, as is Triarsi Racing’s second Ferrari 296 GT3 in GTD. In all, there are some 47 question marks on the entry. Several of the GTD teams have named their Bronze-rated drivers, but the rest of the line-up is to be determined.
The LMP2 field sits at an even dozen as well with the return of CrowdStrike Racing by APR (George Kurtz, Malthe Jakobsen, Toby Sowery and Colton Herta) and the addition of PECOM Racing, looking much like the old AF Corse entry including the No. 88 and drivers Luis Perez Companc, Nicklas Nielsen and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Newcomer Pratt Miller Motorsports has Pietro Fittipaldi, James Roe, Chris Cumming and Callum Ilott listed as drivers.
GTD PRO’s 15 entries, in addition to the full-season efforts and one-offs already announced, include the No. 20 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R with Claudio Schiavoni and Matteo Cressoni — who ran with Iron Lynx last season — joined by Richard Lietz and Thomas Priening. 75 Express, formerly known as SunEnergy1, makes its somewhat annual trek to Daytona with Kenny Habul, Mikael Grenier and Maro Engel. DragonSpeed’s new Ferrari 296 GT3 entry has only Albert Costa listed. Missing is an entry from series and Ferrari stalwart Risi Competizione.
Among GTD’s 22 cars are no real surprises but as noted, a lot of questions. One driver of interest is Joey Hand, nominated to drive the Gradient Racing’s new Ford Mustang GT3 after being released from Ford Multimatic Motorsports, but no other drivers are listed. Roberto Lacorte is the sole driver listed for Cetilar Racing, as is Custodio Toledo for AF Corse, both teams running the Ferrari 296 GT3. Incidentally, the Ferrari 296 GT3 has the most entries (nine) outside the ORECA 07s that make up the entire LMP2 field.
Misha Goikhberg enters his third season driving Forte Racing’s Lamborghini, but no co-drivers have been named. Dan Knox is the only driver listed for Lone Star Racing.
Obviously, there is time for the TBDs to be filled before the Roar Before the 24 kicks off the consecutive weekends at Daytona International Speedway. The Roar runs Jan. 17-19, while the Rolex 24 At Daytona takes place Jan. 23-26.