There will be many changes in this year’s 60th annual Rolex 24 at Daytona, the season starter for IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The annual winter twice-around-the-clock enduro that takes place mostly in darkness, unlike summer’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, is a grueling start to a season that contains four endurance contests. It’s the first race of what the IMSA community calls the 36 Hours of Florida.
This year marks the final run for IMSA’s prototype class, DPi, before the series undertakes the new LMDh category that will allow racers in IMSA and the FIA’s World Endurance Championship to take part in one another’s contests. This year there are only two manufacturers taking part in DPi competition: Acura and Cadillac. Mazda Motorsports retired its two entries after winning the 2021 season finale, Petit Le Mans last November with racers Harry Tincknell, Jonathan Bomarito and Oliver Jarvis in the No. 55.
This weekend’s Roar before the Rolex 24 boasted a total of 61 entries who practiced Friday and Saturday, qualified Saturday to compete for next weekend’s starting positions in a 100-minute Sunday race. There are a total of five classes competing this year: DPi, LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD. GTD Pro is a new class that replaces GTLM, which was shedding participants the past couple of years, leaving only Corvette Racing and a single, non-factory Porsche entry to compete for the final class championship. Corvette earned that one.
In DPi, there are five Cadillac entries and two from Acura, including last year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona overall winners, Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Acura, whose 2021 and 2022 full-year combatants, Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque are joined by 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi and Briton Will Stevens. WTR has the sole DPi full-season runners who are returning to their 2021 mounts for this upcoming season.
Wayne Taylor Racing’s consistency showed on Sunday when the No. 10 Acura earned the pole position for next weekend’s race by besting all comers in the 100-minute afternoon contest. Although they’d qualified second, a rear wing issue had the blue-and-black Acura seventh in class. It was followed by the pole-winning No. 5 Cadillac, the No. 48 Cadillac, the No. 60 Acura, the No. 01 and 02 Cadillacs and the No. 31 Cadillac.The run to the checkers Sunday afternoon included a bit of wheel-banging between the leader and the second-placed DPi, with IMSA making the smart move of letting them race.
Chip Ganassi Racing, which had a single Cadillac entry in 2021, has a pair of cars this season. The No.01 Cadillac is assigned to Renger van den Zande again this year, with four-time INDYCAR champion Sebastien Bourdais joining him for the full season. Scott Dixon and Alex Palou, the six-time and the reigning champions of INDYCAR are on-hand for the Rolex 24 race. The No. 02 features Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn, with support from Marcus Ericsson and Kevin Magnussen, who raced with van den Zande in 2021.
JDC Miller Motorsports’ Mustang Sampling No. 5 Cadillac has returnees Tristan Vautier and Richard Westbrook, along with Loic Duval and Ben Keating; this car took pole position for the qualifying race. Whelen Engineering Racing’s No. 31 features Pipo Derani, Tristan Nunez and Toyota Gazoo Racing’s WEC runner Mike Conway for the 24-hour race; this car won the qualifying race in 2021.
The No. 48 Ally Cadillac’s full-time drivers are Mike Rockenfeller and Kamui Kobayashi, joined by Jimmie Johnson and Jose Maria Lopez of Argentina. The final DPi entry belongs to Meyer Shank Racing: its No. 60 Acura has Oliver Jarvis, Tom Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud on hand as the Ohio team attempts to earn a second 24-hour overall victory, after taking the 50th anniversary Rolex.
There are 10 LMP2 entries for this race, the same as in 2021, all of them using the ORECA 07 chassis and spec Gibson eight-cylinder engines. Last year’s Rolex 24 victors, the No. 18 Era Motorsport entry returns intact with Dwight Merriman, Kyle Tilley, Ryan Dalziel and Paul-Loup Chatin driving. The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports team that won last year’s qualifying race before earning the LMP2 overall championship in 2021, returns with Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen, Scott Huffaker and Nicolas Lapierre – they won the qualifying race in LMP2. again this year. The 2019 and 2020 winners in this class, DragonSpeed is back with Eric Lux, 2022 INDYCAR rookie Devlin DeFrancisco and INDYCAR veterans Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward to mount their challenge.
New in 2021, IMSA’s LMP3 grid at this race grows from six to 10 entries, featuring the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 that won both the 24-hour race in the class’ debut season and took the title with driver Gar Robinson, who’s teamed with Felipe Fraga, Kay van Berlo and Michael Cooper at both the Roar and the 24-hour contest. There are familiar teams and drivers in this class, including the No. 54 CORE Autosport Ligier for Jon Bennet, Colin Braun, George Kurtz and Nic Jonsson. Andretti Autosport has entered a Ligier for Jarett Andretti, Josh Burdon, Rasmus Lindh and Gabby Chaves. Andretti’s entry was first in class after the 100-minute race on Sunday.
In LMP3 there is a second chassis challenging the Ligier; it’s a Duqueine D08 and some of the recognizable names driving this chassis are Joel Miller and Kuno Wittmer. All LMP3 cars use a naturally-aspirated Nissan-based 5.6-liter V-8, producing 455 horsepower. While LMP3 has been around since 2015, this year marks only the second year that IMSA has run this category.
After a fallow 2021 farewell to GTLM, the new GTD Pro class has a robust 13 entries for the Roar and Rolex 24. Corvette Racing, who won both the Rolex race last year (No. 3) and series championship (No. 4) are entered in GTD Pro, but only the No. 3 with Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg will run the entire series.
There are three Porsche 911 GT3R entries, Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s brace of BMW M4 GT3s, a single Aston Martin Vantage GT3, one Lamborghini Huracan GT3, Risi Competizione’s Ferrari 488GT3, a pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3s and Vasser-Sullivan’s sole Lexus RC R GT3 entry. The Lamborghini Huracan of TR3 Racing beat the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche to Sunday’s qualifying race checkered flags to earn pole position in the new GTD Pro class.
As is customary, GTD makes up the bulk of the the field with 22 entries for both Roar and Rolex 24. Vasser-Sullivan has a second Lexus RC F GT3, while there are four Porsche 911 GT3s, four Lamborghini Huracan GT3, Turner Motorsports’ BMW M4 GT3, four Mercedes-AMG GT3s, three Aston Martin Vantage GT3s, a single Acura NSX GT3, two McLaren 720S GT3s, and two Ferrari 488 GT3s. The GTD winners on Sunday, Winward Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 handily beat all but two of the GTD Pro entries en route to its class victory, as did second-placed Crucial Motorsports’ McLaren 720S GT3.
The weather could be an important factor this coming weekend. While the Roar’s Friday practices were dry, Saturday saw rain and there were issues on Sunday as well. For this coming week and the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the lack of track time earlier in the week will bring competitors a “green” racetrack, as precipitation is expected mid-week and much colder temperatures are expected, with Saturday night’s temps getting into the high 30s. For race day, expect sunshine but, if you’re attending, bring warm clothing. The conditions should be a challenge for both the racers and the fans.
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