‘Greater understanding’ led to new Daytona track record – Derani

Even though nearly ideal conditions contributed to records falling at Daytona International Speedway in qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, it was greater understanding of the LMDh cars that make up the Grand Touring Prototype class that led to …

Derani set a best time of 1m32.656s in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R. That 138.32mph lap was more than a second better than Oliver Jarvis’s 2019 1m33.685s lap in a Mazda DPi, and 1.645s better than Tom Blomqvist’s 2023 qualifying time in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06.

LMP2 polesitter Ben Keating described the low-50 degree F temperature, cloudless sky and brisk wind from the East as “perfect,” as well as saying the track was “unbelievably fast.” But Derani countered that it was more about the knowledge gained over a year of racing the GTP cars that has made them faster.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

“I think a lot of it is just us understanding the car,” he explained. “I think obviously the conditions help – as usual, this time of the year is quite cold at Daytona, so more or less the perfect condition for qualifying – but I think everyone is just so much more integrated with their tools and how to extract lap time from from such a difficult car. I would say, at least on our side, we are a much better team with the electronics and with the complexity of the hybrid race car than we were 12 months back.”

Cadillacs led three of the five Roar Before the 24 sessions – Derani took two and Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 led another – and locked out the front row, with a Porsche and a BMW qualifying in the row behind. Ultimately, Derani noted it was working on the little things that allowed him to get the pole over the other Cadillac prepared by Chip Ganassi Racing.

“I think we’re working in the right direction, obviously,” he said. “Last year, we were close to pole position, but not quite there. I think in the end, everyone is really tight. I think Porsche was almost within a tenth from pole, so I think there’s details. In the end of the day, it’s finding those little details to find that little extra time, and we were able to do just that today.”

Pitt F1 film sightings from around the Roar Before the 24 at Daytona

As RACER reported last week, the Brad Pitt racing movie centered on Formula 1 is filming at Daytona International Speedway during the Roar Before the 24 and the Rolex 24 at Daytona, with real life IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship cars and action expected to be featured. Both Wright Motorsports and Turner Motorsports cars are connected to the filming.

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joseph Kosinski, the not-yet-officially titled movie (although it has been referred to as “Apex”) stars Pitt as former F1 driver Sonny Hayes brought back to help an F1 rookie played by Damson Idris. It also counts Lewis Hamilton as a producer through his Dawn Apollo Films, and he’s expected to be on screen as well.

The No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R has been liveried the same as a second car that’s being used for filming, the only difference being the movie car has the names “S. Hayes,” “C. Kelso,” and “P. Long” above the door — the latter being former Porsche factory driver Patrick Long. The camera-laden 911 sits next to Wright’s real entry in the Daytona garage, with the banner above it reading “Chip Hart Racing.”

Prop cart from “Chip Heart Racing.” Richard S. James

Wright’s drivers have been seen wearing suits identical to their own for this race, but with “Hayes” sewn where their name would be. Wright driver Elliot Skeer was called away from Media Day activities on Wednesday to do some driving on a day when no on-track activity was scheduled. Skeer will share the No. 120 with Adam Adelson, Jan Heylen and Porsche factory pilot Fred Makowiecki for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

In addition to the car housed next to Wright’s real entry, there are at least two other cars with the same shades-of-blue livery, one made to look like it had been through 24 hours of racing. Other cars involved in the filming are scattered throughout the paddock, including a spare pair of Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3s and a Lola B2K/10 prototype fitted with a camera rig at the rear.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2QgJI1PVqs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D

Other film-related sightings around Daytona International Speedway include a vintage Volkswagen bus.

Bruckheimer, who also produced another Daytona movie, Days of Thunder, has been named Grand Marshal for the 62nd Rolex 24 at Daytona, which officially begins on Thursday, Jan. 25.

“Daytona International Speedway is an iconic venue and it’s going to be an honor to give the command for the Rolex 24 At Daytona,” said Bruckheimer. “I’ve been here for the biggest NASCAR race and now I can’t wait to experience one of the most prestigious sports car races in the world.”

Porsche on top for first Roar Before the 24 session

Nick Tandy took the top spot with a 1m35.617s lap around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 that he’ll share with Mathieu Jaminet, Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre as the first session of the Roar Before the 24 test days went into the books. The session was the first of five today and tomorrow as IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams prepare for the Rolex 24 At Daytona next weekend, and for qualifying on Sunday.

While Porsche Penske Motorsports had its two cars on track from the beginning of the session, both privateer Porsche 963s were being worked on for half the time or more. The No. 5 Proton Competition car and the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports 963, next to each other in the garage, were sitting with bodywork off, engines running and surrounded by Porsche personnel.

Richard Westbrook sits ready to go as the JDC-Miller MotorSports crew works on the No. 85 Porsche 963 during the first half of the first Roar Before the 24 test session. Richard S. James photo

The JDC Miller MotorSports 963 emerged from the garage halfway through the 90-minute session. The team reported that the car had undergone a myriad of updates from Porsche since arriving at the track, and in the process two wires were switched. Richard Westbrook and Tijmen van der Helm managed 11 laps in the No. 85, while Neel Jani didn’t get the No. 5 Proton 963 on track until there were less than 10 minutes left in the session and completed only four circuits.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

The No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 was second quickest in the hands of Augusto Farfus. Farfus was only 0.35s short of Tandy, and 0.101s ahead of Nick Yelloly’s 1m35.753s in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL entry. Two Cadillac Racing V-Series.Rs completed the top five, Alex Palou leading the pair in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing entry at 1m35.863s and Jack Aitken another 0.166s back in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac. Colton Herta produced the fastest time in the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acuras in sixth.

United Autosports USA announced its entry into IMSA with a 1m39.916s lap by Paul Di Resta in the No. 22 ORECA to lead LMP2. Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen was second in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports entry, 0.031s short of Di Resta’s best, with Nicklas Nielsen posting the third-best time in the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA.

Katherine Legge posted the top time of all the GT cars to claim the top spot in GTD at 1m46.289s for Gradient Racing in the No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22. Legge will share the car with Sheena Monk, her full-season co-driver, Tati Calderon and Stevan McAleer.

In a major turnaround from Lamborghini’s form in last year’s Rolex, Lamborghini sat on top the GTD PRO times as Matteo Cressoni posted the best time in the class in the No. 60 Iron Lynx Huracán GT3 Evo2 at 1m46.918s, 0.629s off Legge’s best. The No. 60 was a late switch to GTD PRO; although Claudio Schiavoni is a Bronze-rated driver and thus eligible for GTD in which the car was originally entered, two Platinum-rated drivers on the squad, Matteo Cairoli and Romain Grosjean, make the car ineligible for GTD.

AWA’s Nico Varrone put the No. 17 Corvette Z06 GT3.R in second in GTD, third GT overall, at 1m46.925s. GTD PRO cars took the next three spots, led by Andrea Caldarelli in the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini only 0.22s behind his teammate. James Calado put the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 in third with a 1m46.942s, and Frederic Vervisch (No. 64) lea his Ford Multimatic Motorsports teammate Harry Tincknell (No. 65) as the two Mustang GT3s were fourth and fifth in GTD PRO.

Antonio Fuoco was third in GTD with the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 at 1m47.066s, followed by Parker Thompson (No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3) and Jan Heylen (No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R).

UP NEXT: The final WeatherTech Championship session of the day will be a 1h45m split session beginning at 4:15 p.m. ET.

RESULTS

Racing on TV, January 19-21

All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted. Friday, January 19 Stage highlights 2:00pm (SDD) Stage highlights 5:00pm 7:00pm (R) Stage highlights 7:30pm (SDD) Saturday, January 20 Daytona 1 2:00-2:50pm San Diego 8:30pm Sunday, January 21 KOH …

All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted.

Friday, January 19

Stage highlights

2:00pm
(SDD)

Stage highlights

5:00pm
7:00pm
(R)

Stage highlights

7:30pm
(SDD)

Saturday, January 20

Daytona 1

2:00-2:50pm

San Diego

8:30pm

Sunday, January 21

	KOH highlights	12:00pm (D) 7:00pm (R)
Note: Highlights air through Feb. 3		12:00pm (D) 7:00pm (R)
	Daytona 2	12:15- 1:05pm
	Rolex 24 qualifying	1:25- 3:00pm

Key: SDD: Same day delay; D = delayed; R = Repeat/Replay

A variety of motor racing is available for streaming on demand at the following sites:

MAVTV.com

MotorTrendOnDemand.com

SRO-america.com
SCCA.com
SpeedSport1.com
Ferrari Challenge
The Trans Am Series airs in 60-minute highlight shows in primetime on the MAVTV Network. For those wishing to tune in live, the entire lineup of SpeedTour events will stream for free on the SpeedTour TV YouTube page. SpeedTour TV will also air non-stop activity on Saturday and Sunday (SVRA, IGT and Trans Am). You can also watch all Trans Am event activity on the Trans Am YouTube page and Facebook page.
All NTT IndyCar Series stream live on Peacock Premium.

AO Racing adds Christensen to ‘Rexy’ lineup for Rolex 24

AO Racing has confirmed the team’s 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Porsche GTD PRO entry will return as “Rexy,” the fan-favorite Porsche 911 GT3 “Rawr.” The team also announced that Porsche factory driver Michael Christensen will be …

“Rexy is ready to step up to GTD Pro,” said team principal Gunnar Jeannette. “The public welcomed our GT3 Rawr with open arms and it was a no-brainer to bring Rexy back for another season of racing. The addition of Michael to the team only strengthens our effort as we advance to the GTD PRO class.”

Danish racing driver Christensen began his Porsche career in 2012 when he joined the Porsche young driver program, the next year becoming an official Porsche factory driver. The Le Mans winner and FIA World Endurance champion will be a strong addition to the team for the Rolex.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

“I’m very pleased to join AO Racing for the Rolex 24 at Daytona,” said Christensen. “It’s a great team, with a lot of talented people and a good driver lineup. I truly believe that we should be in a strong position to fight for a top position!”

AO Racing entered the GTD class in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship last season and continued to learn and progress in its inaugural year with team owner PJ Hyett and Priaulx at the wheel for the full season. Hyett is moving to LMP2 for 2024 as the the team from St. Charlies, Illinois expands to a two-car, two-class effort. With an all-pro lineup, the Porsche moves into GTD PRO. Hyett’s full-season partner in LMP2 will be Paul-Loup Chatin, with Matthew Brabham joining for the Michelin Endurance Cup events and Alex Quinn in the car for the Rolex.

SCM bringing Ligier back to LMP2 at Daytona

Sean Creech Motorsport has set its lineup for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the first round of the of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Endurance Cup. Full-season drivers Lance Willsey and João Barbosa will be joined by 19-year-olds Nolan Siegel, who helped pace the team to a second-place finish in LMP3 at Daytona last January, and European junior open wheel racer Jonny Edgar.

“We’re happy to have Lance, João and Nolan back with the team, and to have Jonny as a new addition,” said team principal Sean Creech. “It’s a great lineup to start the season.”

SCM, after several seasons competing in the now-defunct LMP3 category, is moving to LMP2 for 2024. Unlike the other LMP2 competitors, SCM is sticking with the chassis manufacturer it ran with in LMP3, Ligier. The rest of the LMP2 comeptitors are running the ORECA 07 chassis.

“The age of our lineup up looks a bit like a barbell, doesn’t it?” quipped Willsey. “I’m 62, João is 48, and the two youngsters are all of 19. I’m very much looking forward to the full season with João — we had some great achievements in the LMP3 car — and I’m looking forward to being a part of the re-introduction of the Ligier P2 car. We’re excited to have Nolan back this year — he was a welcome late addition last year. It’s been good to have him on board early, through testing.

“We’re also happy to introduce Jonny Edgar to the U.S. sports car audience,” Willsey said. “We’ve been impressed with him, both in and out of the car. We’re confident he will make a significant contribution through the Roar and the 24. It’s been good for us to be able to help some of the young drivers gain a foothold in the U.S., drivers like Malthe Jakobsen and Nico Pino, who drove with us in the past.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

Four-time Rolex 24 winner Barbosa has contested 21 of the last 23 races with teams that have amassed impressive statistics at Daytona: those 21 cars have led over 2,000 laps and completed over 14,000 (a laps complete percentage of 93%). That puts the mileage chart for the cars Barbosa has raced in the Rolex 24 at over 50,000 miles — or twice around the world. But Barbosa knows that entering the race with the reintroduced Ligier LMP2 car will not mean the same mindset as the past three years, with the tried-and-true Ligier JS P320.

“It’s a different approach this year,” said Barbosa. “The team and the drivers know the work that will come this month to be ready for 24 hours. It’s proven to be reliable so far and the team has done a great job. We’ll continue to work on the car, continue to understand what it wants. We’ve lost half our test time to weather or track cancellations, so we know there’s more work to do at the Roar. But we have a good lineup for the 24. We know how quick Nolan is and Jonny really proved that he can be quick at the test, and his approach, feedback and speed were quite good.”

Siegel has raced professionally since the age of 14, winning races on every level of the Road to Indy junior open-wheel ladder system. The California native added sports car racing to his repertoire in 2021, competing in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, IMSA Prototype Challenge, Asian Le Mans Series and the IMSA WeatherTech series over the past three years. Siegel has earned podiums in both of his two Rolex 24 starts, including last year’s second-place finish with SCM.

“It’s great to be back with SCM,” said Siegel. “It’s fun to work with people who are so passionate about what they do. It’s a different approach this year since we’re developing the car rather than focusing on fine-tuning and putting in a quick qualifying lap. Testing has been fun for the drivers and the engineers, taking big swings at it, trying radical ideas. This is one of the first endurance races where I’m not the ‘new kid ’and hopefully I can help Jonny get through his first Rolex 24. But I’ll still take the opportunity to learn as much as I can from Lance and João. There might not be anyone on the grid with more endurance racing experience and success than João does, and there’s always more that I can learn.”

UK native Edgar has won numerous national and international karting championships, including SKUSA SuperNats and the CIK-FIA European Championships, and was named to the Red Bull Junior Team in 2017. Edgar began racing on the European junior open-wheel circuits in 2019, earning success in Spanish F4, Italian F4, and capturing the 2020 ADAC Formula 4 championship. He raced in FIA Formula 3 last year, earning a victory at Monza, and raced a McLaren GT3 in the British GT Championship finale.

“I was impressed with the team and the car at the test last month,” said Edgar. “If we keep going in the direction we were going at the test, we’ll be in good shape. It seemed to me that technique and feel were quite similar to other cars I’ve driven, but obviously the multi-class aspect as well as the night running are very different from what I’m used to. But I have very experienced teammates and will learn a great deal at the Roar, all the little bits that add up in a 24-hour race. I’ll continue my gym work between now and then but there’s the mental side of endurance racing as well, managing your time out of car, so I’ll focus on that as well.”

Finishing on the podium at Daytona is a significant accomplishment; but for Creech, finishing second three years in a row is no consolation. He knows the process will continue with the new car but feels confident that his talented drivers and crew have what it takes to put the Ligier JS P217 (pictured, top) up front. The car has paced 698 trouble-free laps in four days of testing, but Creech rues the loss of four additional test days due to weather and a repave of Daytona’s Bus Stop.

“Finishing second at Daytona is fine, but that’s not why we’re here,” said Creech. “We’re here to win — and we have the crew and the drivers to do that. We’re not as far along with the car as we’d like to be, having lost those four test days, but we’ll focus on finalizing the setup and getting Jonny completely up to speed on the IMSA regulations at the Roar.

“It is a big challenge to take on a car that is basically all-new, as we are in a class full of teams that have a great deal of experience with the ORECA. But we are focused on learning as much as we can, finding a good window with the car, and executing as a team for the entire event. If we can do that I think we will be in good shape. The Ligier JS P217 has proven to be quite reliable so far and we look to continue that trend, in collaboration with Ligier. We appreciate the commitment they have made to the re-introduction of the chassis.”

The three-day Roar Before the 24 test begins on Friday, Jan. 19, with the Rolex 24 at Daytona taking place the following weekend.

Massa joins Riley Motorsports for Rolex 24

Formula 1 veteran Felipe Massa will make his first start at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January as part of Riley Motorsports’ new LMP2 program. The Brazilian, who won 11 F1 world championship races while driving for Ferrari, will partner with …

Formula 1 veteran Felipe Massa will make his first start at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January as part of Riley Motorsports’ new LMP2 program.

The Brazilian, who won 11 F1 world championship races while driving for Ferrari, will partner with countryman Felipe Fraga, Texan Gar Robinson — IMSA’s 2023 LMP3 champion — and Australian Josh Burdon.

Although his open-wheel career ended in 2020 after spending two seasons in Formula E, the 42-year-old has kept busy in recent years as a marquee name in the Brazilian Stock Car series, which should make the transition to racing with a roof over his head in an ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2 car less of an abrupt adjustment.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

“I’m here to announce that I will race 24 Hours of Daytona,” Massa said in a social media post. “I always try to do one of these races in my career and it will be the first time that I will race Daytona with Riley Motorsports, a very great and important team here in the U.S. Thank you very much to Gar for the invitation.”

Massa joins a growing list of all-star drivers, including 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button and 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden, who will take part in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener.

“The opportunity came up and the ability to be able to share a car with a legend like Felipe Massa and my brother Felipe Fraga,” Robinson said. “It checks all the cool boxes on every box.”

What off season? IMSA teams prepare for testing at Daytona

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams have been gearing up for the 2024 season in private testing, but they’ll gather together at Daytona International Speedway next week for a four-day IMSA homologation test. While the test allows the sanctioning body to help gauge car performance and make any Balance of Performance changes — especially with the new crop of GT3 cars coming in from Ford and Chevrolet — it will be critical for the teams in preparation for the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the rest of the season.

For the Grand Touring Prototype teams, it affords them the opportunity to build upon the knowledge they’ve gathered over the first season with the cars and try some new approaches. Last year, most of the teams running the brand-new LMDh-specification cars were simply trying to figure out how to run the things and make sure they would last 24 hours. Mission accomplished, they can now turn their attention to wringing more performance out of their machines.

“One of the things that we’re excited about with our carryover program for ’24 is we’re able to focus on the car and understanding it more as well as making sure we have all the support on the GM and Dallara side ready to help the teams be successful,” says GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser. “One of the most challenging things this year has been the lack of time. We’ve been running race to race to race, and we’d occasionally slip in a test. Really, it was our race schedule in 2023 that kept us busy, which was phenomenal because you can’t have a better test than a race to see what you can do with the car.”

Racing proved to the teams that the cars are more durable and reliable than many expected. The races showed what can go wrong, and how to correct the problems to keep the car on track. But it’s hard to find the time in a race weekend to try the little things that can add up to significant time over the course of every lap.

“Toward the end of the season with the couple of tests we had, we started to learn more about the car and what makes it go and what doesn’t work,” says Sebastien Bourdais, driver of the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R. “It’s just going to take time. People think we’ve had a lot of testing, but it was all centered toward homologation and reliability. We’re still really green on knowledge of the car as far as designing setups and getting performance out of it.

“Since we homologated the car, there’s really been little time to optimize it and understand it as far as finding that last half a second that’s a game-changer when you come to race weekends. It’s going to be a continuous learning process, trying to make numbers fall into place and validate the reads.”

Bourdais and company are eager to move beyond the basics in optimizing the capabilities of their LMDh prototypes. Richard Dole/Lumen

Bourdais is one of several Cadillac Racing drivers who will be testing next week at Daytona. Cadillac Racing won the 2023 GTP title with the No. 31 V-Series.R courtesy of Whelen Engineering and drivers Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims. With the addition of endurance driver Jack Aitken, they also took the the Michelin Endurance Cup. Bourdais and Renger van der Zande also scored a victory with the Chip Ganasssi Racing squad at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, helping Cadillac to the manufacturers’ title. Despite what can only be called a successful season in the inaugural year of the new GTP class, there’s no resting on the laurels — there’s a lot of room for improvement.

“Like any new car, you always want more testing, more practice time. Especially when it’s such a complex race car with the hybrid, and a heavy car makes for a longer road in terms of development,” explains Derani. “We’re a year and a bit into the development of this car but only just now starting to understand a few things that make sense to the setup and how we make this car go quicker. Still a lot to improve from everyone.

“We’ve done a strong job despite all the difficulties we had this season. It’s always a learning process and you have to be humble enough to know you have to continue that way if you want to succeed in this series.”

But beyond just working on the car, like every team Cadillac Racing also has new team members and drivers to bring into the loop. Aitken moves from endurance third driver on the No. 31 to full-time partner to Derani. Tom Blomqvist shifts from Meyer Shank Racing and Acura to join Derani and Aitken for the endurance events in addition to competing in his rookie IndyCar season. For those drivers especially, any testing time is critical.

“We have a lot to work on and improve; I think that’s the case for everybody with these cars that are still so early in the development cycle that everybody is learning quickly,” Aitken says. “We’ve made massive gains through the season, but when you don’t have racing, it gives everybody the opportunity to breathe a little bit and the capacity to make some changes and updates and advancements. It’s going to be a busy period for us. The race to be ready for the Roar and Daytona will be pretty intense. Though it feels a long way from now, it will come around quickly.”

The GTP teams, along with LMP2, will be on track next Wednesday and Thursday, joined by GTD PRO and GTD on Thursday before the series turns its attention to two days of targeted performance testing of the GTD cars.

United Autosports adds O’Ward and Rosenqvist for Daytona

United Autosports – the sports car team co-owned by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and former racer Richard Dean – has added a pair of IndyCar racers to the lineup of its LMP2 entries for the Rolex 24 At Daytona in Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist. …

United Autosports — the sports car team co-owned by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and former racer Richard Dean — has added a pair of IndyCar racers to the lineup of its LMP2 entries for the Rolex 24 At Daytona in Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist.

“I’m really happy to get a deal done with Zak [Brown] and Richard [Dean],” said O’Ward — already a two-time Rolex 24 winner in just three starts at the iconic American endurance race. “It’s something I’ve been bugging them about for a while, so Daytona 2024 was a complete no brainer!”

The Mexican will join Ben Keating, Ben Hanley and recently announced Nico Pino in the No. 2 Mission Foods United Autosports LMP2 ORECA 07

“We have been trying to get Pato in a United Autosports car for a while now,” said Dean, United Autosports CEO. “After a few false starts, finally we have our man. Pato brings experience as a Daytona race winner and is just plain fast in everything he drives! I would like to thank everyone at the Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team for helping make this happen.”

This will be third Rolex 24 for Rosenqvist, who raced there in Prototype Challenge and LMP2 in 2016 and ’18 respectively. The Swede will share the No. 22 ORECA 07 with Daniel Goldburg, Paul di Resta and a fourth driver still to be announced Floridian race that will launch United Autosports’ first full IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

“I’m super excited to be back in sports car racing,” said Rosenqvist. “It’s been five years since I did a sports car race … I used to do it a lot back in the day but it’s been put on pause recently because I’ve been focusing on my IndyCar career. It’s something I love doing and to be racing with United Autosports is really cool. This team has won a lot of LMP2 races before, so they’re coming in with the expectation to do well — which matches my goals!”

“Felix Rosenqvist is a winner,” added Dean. “He has won races across an impressive range of series through his racing career and, over the past five years, has made a real name for himself in IndyCar. We are really excited to see Felix in the United Autosports car this January and feel very proud to partner with him in his quest for success at Daytona.”

IMSA releases preliminary 60-car entry for 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona

A little over a month ago, IMSA released the full-season team entry for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Now, two months prior to the 62nd Rolex 24 At Daytona, the series has released a preliminary entry list for the race. While the flurry of team announcements last week and the first part of this one have left little to surprise, there are a few items of note.

A total of 60 cars are entered for the 2024 Rolex 24, a capacity entry — 10 GTP, 12 LMP2, 13 GTD PRO and 25 GTD cars. The preliminary lineup of drivers includes 56 Rolex 24 winners and a plethora of champions from the WeatherTech Championship to the FIA World Endurance Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans. The field also includes several Indianapolis 500 winners and IndyCar Series champions as well as one Formula 1 world champion.

“We could not be prouder to release this preliminary list of participants for the Rolex 24 At Daytona significantly earlier than we ever have before,” said IMSA President John Doonan. “Looking up and down the lineup, we will have a tremendous field of teams, cars and drivers and no shortage of compelling storylines to develop and follow in the next two months as we lead up to the race. With such a stacked field, it would be impossible to identify a favorite in any of the four classes.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

There are a couple of surprises of note, mostly in the GTD class, which has increased by three entries from the list released last month. Chief among them is a Mustang GT3 entry from Proton Competition. Proton will be racing the Mustang GT3 in the FIA WEC, and it looks like Christian Ried’s team is looking to get a head start at Daytona. Lone Star Racing has been added to the list with its Mercedes AMG GT3, and MDK Motorsports has two Porsche 911 GT3 R entries listed. Speaking of Porsche, Andretti Motorsports is switching from the Aston Martin that the team raced in some events last year to a 911 GT3 R for Jarett Andretti, Gabby Chaves and Scott Hargrove.

Of note among the GTP entries is Jesse Krohn in the place of Philipp Eng in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, although there is still a TBD on the driver roster of both BMWs.In LMP2, the list revealed that Sean Creech Motorsports will retain its core driver lineup of Lance Willsey and Joao Barbosa as it moves into the class with the lone Ligier in the field.

The Rolex 24 At Daytona, preceded by the Roar Before the 24 on Jan. 19-21, takes place Jan. 25-28.

Preliminary entry list, by class: