Rolex 24 Tag

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The 56th edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona kicks off the racing year with one of the most star studded grids of the season. Among the starters of tomorrow’s endurance classic are three 2018 Formula One drivers who have come stateside to compete against the best of IMSA, as well as some of better talents from NASCAR and IndyCar. Fernando Alonso is continuing his exploration outside of F1 as the next chapter of his triple crown attempt (Monaco GP, Indianapolis 500 and 24 Hours ofRead More

By Josh Farmer, Contributing Writer  Highlighting the star-studded field of the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona are drivers from six drivers from the Verizon IndyCar Series – Ryan Hunter-Reay, Graham Rahal, Spencer Pigot, Simon Pagenaud, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon. Overall victories of the historic race have been captured by Dixon (2006, 2015), Bourdais (2014) and Rahal (2011). The 56th edition of the event will see Hunter-Reay lead the charge for the open-wheel crossovers. Driving for 2016 Rolex 24 winning team Wayne Taylor Racing, the 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner finds himselfRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona has achieved star power status with world championship-caliber drivers and manufacturers in the Prototype ranks in the second year of the DPi/LMP2 rules package. (what is a DPi? https://www.imsa.com/qa-2017-daytona-prototype-international-dpi-concept) The entry list has four manufacturers in the DPi ranks with Nissan (two cars), Mazda (two cars), Acura (two cars) and Cadillac (four cars) going up against 10 LMP2 cars from Oreca (six cars), Riley/Multimatic (one car) and Ligier (three cars). Let’s look at the Prototype portion of the entry listRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The Roar Before the 24 gives teams in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship the opportunity to test out their machines ahead of the season-opening Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona at the Daytona International Speedway road course. The end of the testing period is marked by a qualifying session that determines pit road and garage space selection. Prototype It was a near-perfect Cadillac sweep of the top three positions of the seven practice sessions. Out of 21 positions, Cadillac-powered DPi machines occupied 18 of those positionsRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Last weekend, Formula One cars hit the 31 degree high banks of Daytona for the first time in history as part of Ferrari’s Finali Mondiali year end celebration and races. The event, held in North America for the first time featured thousands of Ferrari road and race cars from across the globe in a series of races and exhibition laps with everything from historic cars, and challenge series cars to recent F1 machinery. Scuderia Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were on hand and thrilledRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter Jeff Gordon will race in next month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona for Wayne Taylor Racing in their new Cadillac DPi-V.R. The four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion highlights the team’s high-caliber lineup of brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor as well as Max Angelelli. Gordon helped guide  WTR to a podium finish in the 2007 Rolex 24 for WTR alongside Angelelli, Wayne Taylor and Jan Magnussen. That was Gordon’s lone sportscar racing start among his legendary career in NASCAR where he earned 90 career wins to go along withRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Stefano Domenicali, best known for his time as Ferrari’s F1 Team Principal from 2008 until 2014 is now set to be sworn in as the CEO of Lamborghini on March 15th. After being forced out of the house that Enzo built when Sergio Marchionne got rid of Luca di Montezemolo and took over Ferrari’s reigns, nice guy Domenicali was immediately snatched up by Audi. It was a move that may thought would spearhead the Volkswagen-Audi Group’s much anticipated F1 bid, until the VW emissions scandal putRead More

By Josh Farmer, Journalist Ryan Hunter-Reay was the highest finishing IndyCar driver in the 2016 Rolex 24 at Daytona with a 3rd place finish. The 2012 Verizon IndyCar Series champion, along with VisitFlordia.com Racing teammates Ryan Dalziel and Marc Goossens, held on after a tough 24 race for the Daytona Beach, Florida based team. The #90 Corvette Prototype suffered from handling issues throughout the day and became the benefactor when several of the front runners had problems and wound up scoring their career best finish at Daytona. “We just keptRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service The No. 02 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Daytona Prototype was running an extremely competitive race until brake failure in the eighth hour forced the car to the garage for repairs. The “Star Car” piloted by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regulars Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson and IndyCar champions Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan was vying for a second straight Rolex 24 at Daytona title before the brake pedal went to the floor with Kanaan behind the wheel. The No. 02 lost five laps whileRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Appropriately enough, after 24 hours of seemingly non-stop action, the fastest car still running was the overall winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Luis Felipe “Pipo” Derani, a baby-faced 22-year old racing prodigy from Brazil, took the checkered flag on Sunday afternoon in the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Honda-powered Ligier JS P2, 26.166 seconds ahead of 2005 overall winner Max Angelleli in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP. Derani brought home victory for teammates Scott Sharp,Read More