Rolex 24 at Daytona Tag

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Wayne Taylor was noticeably emotional atop the pit box as Kamui Kobayashi guided his No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R across the start/finish line to the overall win the Rolex 24 At Daytona – the second straight for Wayne Taylor Racing and the fourth total for the team. And the first without one of Taylor’s sons in the driver rotation. Kobayashi, Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Renger van der Zande filled out the Cadillac’s lineup with Ricky Taylor racing for class rivalRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — Qualifying on medium tires was BMW’s strategy to hide their true pace ahead of the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona. After qualifying, it was easy to see how one could predict Porsche to win the GTLM class. The German manufacturer qualified first and second by a decent margin over the Corvette Racing pair in third and fourth and the BMW M8 GTE pair in fifth and sixth. However, as the race went on through the night, the No. 24 M8 of John Edwards, JesseRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — Two of the top contenders in the Rolex 24 at Daytona have collided during the fourth hour of the race, with one car still in the garage over 30 minutes after the incident took place. Harry Tincknell in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P DPi was trying to overtake Helio Castroneves in the No. 7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi as the pair headed to the bus stop chicane on the backstretch of the Daytona International Speedway. Tincknell went down Castroneves’s inside, butRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer IMSA and the ACO have announced a preliminary set of rules that will see sports car teams be able to compete in both 24 hour races at Daytona and Le Mans in the same prototype car. The new category, called LMDh (Le Mans, Daytona, yet to be identified h), is built around both IMSA’s DPi and the ACO’s Hypercar formula. From the IMSA release, the new LMDh car: “Based on a new chassis common to both ACO and IMSA, using elements of the Le Mans HypercarRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Mazda Team Joest confirmed its 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship lineup Thursday with former NTT IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay being among the headlining drivers. Hunter-Reay will participate in the Michelin Endurance Cup, piloting the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P. He’ll be joining co-pilots Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell, who’ll be sharing the ride together for the third straight year. The INDYCAR veteran drove the No. 55 entry at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course last year, finishing third overall. Hunter-Reay said that the moment he strapped himselfRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – He may be a full-time IndyCar driver now, but there’s no driver with more experience in various Acura prototype sports cars than Simon Pagenaud. It’s a fact that wasn’t lost on him in testing last week at Sebring International Raceway as he and his Acura Team Penske teammates prepared for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. “I’ve been fortunate,” Pagenaud said. “I’ve seen every iteration of the Acura prototype since 2008. It’s been a phenomenal timeRead More

By IMSA Wire Service If you were watching the 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona, you may have seen a red and black, buffalo plaid Porsche out there mixing it up in the GT Daytona (GTD) class. You may have said to yourself, “Now, that’s an interesting livery. Is it one of those historic IMSA liveries?” It wasn’t, but it definitely was unique. And it made total sense, especially when you consider that the No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3 R was fielded by Toronto-based Pfaff Motorsports. And two of the fourRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A wet and wild Sunday led to the first rain-shortened Rolex 24 At Daytona in the 57-event history of the prestigious enduro on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway. As one would have expected in the days of practice and qualifying preceding the drop of the green flag on Saturday afternoon, the outcome would be unpredictable. The conditions magnified that fact, but in the end, the four class winners were clearly deserving. Here are our five takeaways from a Rolex 24Read More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan 27, 2018) – Heavy rains that began in the early morning hours on Sunday and continued throughout the day made the 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona a battle for survival, and the team that wound up to be the fittest was the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R squad of Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande, Kamui Kobayashi and Fernando Alonso. With two hours and seven minutes remaining in the race, Alonso took the lead when 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship PrototypeRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan 27, 2018) – After more than 22 hours of tight competition, the weather forced an unprecedented early ending to the Rolex 24 At Daytona, but the racing and star players kept things dramatic and interesting for the whole span of the twice-round-the-clock event. A second red flag flew at Daytona International Speedway Sunday afternoon because of heavy rain showers with an hour and 45 minutes remaining in the scheduled race – the first time in history the race has had two redRead More