#Daytona 24 Hour Race

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Ford GT40

The race winning Ford GT40 driven by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby in the Daytona 24 Hour Race, 1966

[laura1633]

Daytona 24 hours drivers identify the one person missing from the race's grid

Max Verstappen has been implored to pursue endurance racing by multiple drivers competing in the 24 Hours of Daytona.

The famed race, called the Rolex 24, gets underway later today at the Daytona International Speedway and it is clear there is considerable appetite to have the four-time F1 drivers' champion competing in Florida.

The existing grid for the race is well stocked, with 14 former F1 drivers listed amongst the 235-strong field, as well as Felipe Drugovich, Fredrik Vesti and Arthur Leclerc, all of whom have experience in reserve or development roles in the so-called pinnacle of motorsport.

It is, therefore, not unprecedented for ex-F1 drivers to make the switch and when three-time V8 Supercar champion and soon-to-be NASCAR rookie Shane van Gisbergen was asked by AP News which driver was missing from the race, he simply replied: "Max."

That one-word answer underlines Verstappen's status and influence in global motorsport. It was a sentiment shared by Ben Keating, who echoed the views of team-mate Van Gisbergen.

"I’d like to see Max Verstappen come out here and play around with us," Keating, who will drive the number 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport GTD Pro car alongside the New Zealander, said.

Van Gisbergen, backed by Red Bull himself, shared that he was speaking with Verstappen during his preparation for the Rolex 24. He added: "I think he’d be good here.”

The driver racing in the 2025 24 Hours of Daytona with the most recent F1 experience is former Haas man Kevin Magnussen, whose BMW starts from pole.

The 32-year-old has prior endurance experience, from his time away from F1 in 2021, and believes Verstappen will make a similar step in the future.

"I don’t see him continuing 10 years in F1," the Danish driver said. "He’s a proper racer, so he would do Daytona. Based on all the sim racing he does and he already has a GT team."

Verstappen has previously stated he would like to set up his own GT3 team and is known to be interested in endurance racing.

"The first step is our own GT3 team and then we’ll see where we end up," the Red Bull driver previously told Dutch magazine Formule 1. "It would be nice to be able to grow to the highest level in endurance racing."

The 27-year-old got the opportunity to try an Acura sports car at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in November last year ahead him clinching his fourth-successive F1 title under the lights of Sin City.

[coimbrabertone]

Motorsports is Back for 2025

Last weekend we saw the unofficial start of the 2025 racing season with the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Rally Monte Carlo running simultaneously, two of the typical curtain raisers for motorsports.

Now, there is also the Dakar Rally, which took place earlier in January, and I keep meaning to look into it, but it just hasn't happened. First of all because it's just so hard to watch in the US, secondly because even if it were easier to watch, the time difference puts it super early in the morning, and thirdly...it's in Saudi Arabia.

I know that the whole Western Sahara situation - as well as instability in Mauritania - makes the historic Paris-Dakar route difficult, and the South American experiment didn't really work out either, but Saudi Arabia? It's just icky to me.

I hate it that sports are bending over backwards for one of the most repressive regimes in history.

Anyway, let's not get bogged down in that, because with the start of the WRC and IMSA seasons, motorsports is back.

The Monte Carly Rally started first, with a Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule. For those who don't know, the Monte Carlo Rally takes place on mountain roads in the French Alps just north of Monaco, with tarmac surfaces frequently covered in ice and sometimes even snow. Taking place this early in the year, many of the stages - which vary from 14 km in length all the way up to 27 - also take place at night, making the rally even more difficult.

So, it started with WRC legend Sebastien Ogier building an early lead, however, an early slip put him into the wall in a hairpin, handing the lead first to reigning champion Thierry Neuville in the Hyundai, and then Ogier's Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans.

Neuville ran into problems of his own on Friday, while Ogier's crew repaired the damage on his Toyota, meaning that Sebastien was back in the lead come the end of the second day. Hyundai, meanwhile, was in the odd position where Adrien Fourmaux, their youngest driver freshly signed on from Ford, was their highest placed car.

In fact, with Ogier in the lead and Fourmaux moving up to second, it was briefly a French 1-2 in the rally that takes place on French soil.

Saturday saw Elfyn Evans move back into second, while Ott Tanak in the third Hyundai surged forward, winning the final three stages of the day to surge back into contentions.

Under current WRC points, the bulk points are award at the end of Saturday, so Ogier got 25, Elfyn 17, Fourmaux 15, returning full-time Toyota driver Kalle Rovanpera got 12 in fourth, Tanak moved up to fifth place with 10 points, and Neuville received 8 points for sixth.

Tanak's charge came to an end on Sunday when he ran into issues and he'd score no regular day points that morning, while Elfyn would win the day, taking 5 points ahead of Rovanpera on 4, Ogier took 3 points as he coasted to win, Fourmaux took 2 points, and Neuville snatched the final Sunday regular point.

That brought us onto the Power Stage, one final high-speed run to the finish with another five points on the line.

Here, Ogier went for maximum points again, snatching the 5 points, ahead of Elfyn on 4, Fourmaux on 3, Rovanpera on 2, and Tanak who salvaged a point from his otherwise terrible Sunday.

So, Sebastien Ogier wins a record-extending 10th Monte Carlo Rally - clearing fellow Frenchman Sebastien Loeb who sits on 8 wins - Elfyn Evans makes for a Toyota 1-2, and Hyundai's new signing is surprisingly leading the pack in 3rd. Rovanpera finishes 4th despite being out of practice after skipping last year's Monty, ahead of Tanak and Neuville who both had issues. Josh McErlean in seventh was the only other Rally1 finisher, continuing Ford's somewhat token efforts in WRC as of late.

As these final Sunday stages were happening, however, another race was underway in North America.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona, the second biggest endurance race in the world and the traditional curtain raiser for North American motorsports. I've talked about this before, but it's a regular coming together of motorsports, with the IMSA regulars joined by WEC and ELMS crews, Indycar drivers, Trans Am drivers, ex-Formula One drivers, and even a few NASCAR drivers like Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, and Austin Cindric.

Here's a fun game I've played with some friends lately - look at the entry list for a big race like this and find the most obscure name you recognize.

I saw Benjamin Pederson in the #52 LMP2 - he drove for AJ Foyt Racing for one season in 2023.

Eddie Cheever III is another. Son of Eddie Cheever who drove in F1 in the 80s, CART in the 90s, and IRL in the 00s, Eddie III was born in Rome and races under an Italian license. He's a Ferrari GT driver these days and appears at the Rolex 24 fairly regularly - this time around he was in the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari.

Speaking of Triarsi, they're another one, because they're the old Ferrari of Central Florida team from Ferrari Challenge North America. They've gone big and adopted a bigger sounding name, but it is still essentially Ferrari Orlando running a pair of IMSA cars, and I think that's cool.

Anyway, enough trivia of who was in the race, let's talk about the race itself.

It was a fairly clean race by Daytona standards - up until the very end anyway - with relatively few LMP2 cautions, not too many cars stranded on track, and no rain to disrupt things. That being said, the racing kept it interesting, as the #24 initially built a big lead before a bizarre pitstop where Dries Vanthoor parked in his pitstall at a sharp angle, making his crew have to awkwardly scramble to get the pitstop done. This moved the Porsches into the lead, but the Acuras and a resurgent BMW did their best to keep the show interesting.

The #24 BMW was probably the fastest car all day and worked its way back into contention, however, they got a little too impatient in traffic and a little too free with the chrome horn, meaning they developed a tyre rub that dropped them a lap down an hour from the finish. The BMW would pass the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac to move into fourth place, the first car one lap down, but it couldn't overcome more than that.

Thus, it turned into a battle between the #6 Porsche which led, the #7 Porsche which was in second, and the #60 Acura which came alive right at the end of the race.

The #7 was under pressure from the #60 with IMSA all-star Tom Blomqvist on a charge for Meyer Shank Racing. This left Felipe Nasr in the #7 with little choice but to go side-by-side with his teammate Matt Campbell in the #6 to take the lead.

It was the right call too, because Felipe Nasr was able to break away and win the race, while Matt Campbell got caught and passed by Blomqvist, denying Penske Porsche a 1-2 finish.

It was a similar story in the GTD classes, where in GTD Pro, it was a heated battle between the Pratt & Miller Corvettes, the Paul Miller (no relation) Racing BMW, and the Multimatic Ford Mustang. Earlier in the race there was a big controversy where the lapped #48 Paul Miller BMW helped out their teammates in the #1 car by holding up the #4 Corvette, which turned ugly when they made contact and Corvette picked up some big damage on the rear end.

To which, Tommy Milner won the adoration of the internet by raising his middle finger out the window and flipping off the BMW while going full speed through the Daytona International Speedway's trioval.

God bless America.

The #4 Corvette got a tape job and got back into contention with Nico Varrone behind the wheel, as it and the teammate #3 Corvette started battling with the #1 BMW and the #65 Mustang.

The Corvette and BMW start touching on the oval and through the bus stop, so finally, Nico Varrone has enough of it and wrecks the #1 BMW in turn one while the #3 Corvette turns beneath the both of them. Varrone gets a penalty and the #4 drops out of contention, but the #3 Corvette moves into second place.

Unfortunately, the #65 Mustang took the opportunity to disappear into the distance.

Unlucky for Corvette, but we got the #65 Mustang in first, the #3 Corvette second, and the #64 Mustang in third - making for an American car 1-2-3 in GTD Pro.

As for GTD Am, it was more beating and banging as the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin barged the #13 AWA Corvette out of the way in turn one, however, the AWA Corvette managed to recover and retake the position. They even went three wide into the bus stop chicane at one point as the AWA Corvette and the #27 Aston battled for so long that the #120 Porsche entered the picture. The AWA Corvette held off the competition and won the class.

#13...unlucky for some, but not AWA.

So, Porsche wins in GTP, Mustang in GTD Pro, and the AWA Corvette in GTD.

As for the one remaining class in the form of LMP2, that honor went to the #8 Tower Motorsports car, driven by John Farano, Job van Uilert, Sebastian Alvarez...and Sebastien Bourdais.

Bourdais and Ogier both got wins this weekend.

A good weekend for French dudes named Sebastien, huh?

[visualvocabulary33]

[jack-doohan]

meyershankracing We’re so back and it’s only the beginning. 🍾

[viper-motorsports]

[kakunology]

Kakunoshin 'Kaku' Ohta during 'Night Practice' / Practice Session 5 - Roar Before The Rolex, 24 Hours of Daytona || IMSA.

[stone-cold-groove]

The winning Ford GT40 entry of Shelby American making a pit stop. 24 Hours of Daytona - 1965.

[headlight-district]

Almost at the end of the rainbow....The weekend is right around the corner.

[forzalife]

Rawr-That's how you spell Love.

Its the GT3 Rawr for me. What a great car and a wonderful livery! Fingers crossed AO Racing will bring it home! 🦖

[blackros78]

[masterandapprentice]

lol, yesterday one of the commentators on Fox Sports said this about Rexie:

"It's a Porsche but it identifies as a dinosaur"

Ahahahahahahaha a complete win!!! Honestly I loved the broadcasting xDD

[coimbrabertone]

Le Mans vs. Daytona, Two Sides of the Endurance Racing Coin.

A bit of a belated blog on the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, how it compares to the other major 24-hour race - the Rolex 24 at Daytona - and how IMSA and WEC differ.

First things first, sports car racing in general is at a peak right now.

The largest prototype fields in decades, interclass competition of sorts with LMDh/GTP cars on one end and Hypercars on the other, and equally diverse GT3 fields to go with it. It's not a competition between IMSA and WEC as far as I'm concerned, both series collaborated on these regulations and that has benefitted endurance racing as a whole.

That being said, I've noticed some differences between the two, and I've had some discussions with friends about it lately.

The crux is this: the Rolex 24 at Daytona is the curtain raiser for the racing season, where drivers from every discipline from Formula One to NASCAR to half the Indycar field, plus all the regular cast of characters from endurance racing come to play. It's all within the confines of a 2.5-mile oval with big grandstands and clear sightlines, and the lights are all over the track, meaning you can see all the action pretty well. It's also in Daytona Beach a few weeks ahead of the Daytona 500.

Daytona is a party, a celebration of motorsport to kick off the next season of racing.

Le Mans, meanwhile, is a beacon of history. The start-finish line is where it has always been, the Dunlop Bridge has outlasted Dunlop itself making racing tyres, and it's an old school reminder to when those types of circular bridges were all over racing. Then onto the Mulsanne, the long, dark highway, with bits of civilization interspersed with woods, a theme with continues in the back half of the track. Some corners are named after historic tracks, like Indianapolis, others are named after the marques which defined era of Le Mans history - Corvette, Porsche, and Ford in particular.

Corvette, which has dominated GT racing at Le Mans for decades now.

Porsche, which is the most successful brand at Le Mans, and

Ford, who went back-to-back-to-back-to-back in the late 60s with the GT40, and then returned with the GT1 and GTE models in more recent decades.

That dedication to history shows in the broadcast too, with the broadcast often cutting to Tom Kristensen for interviews or by harkening back to similar events in Le Mans' past. Obviously, that's something that comes up in all racing broadcasts, but it was very apparent at Le Mans this year.

For the record, I'm not saying that's bad, this blog is proof that I'm a massive nerd when it comes to racing history, and I love that, I'm just noting it's a difference.

The crowd burning a couch in celebration after the 12 Hours of Sebring? Fans celebrating the misadventures of the Sean Creech Motorsports American flag Ligier LMP2 with its many cautions at Daytona and now Watkins Glen? You don't really see that at Le Mans.

In fact, there was one very fun thing from the 2023 Le Mans that was missing this year: the Garage 56 NASCAR. Now, i understand that was a one-off thing, and I do get the impression that the hydrogen car they showed off before the race - which was numbered #24, just like the NASCAR had been - was supposed to be a G56 entry for this year but they couldn't quite get it working yet, so I know that it's a bit of an unfair criticism to levy against Le Mans.

Still, 2023 had the big Camaro memes, the V8 sound, all those Freebird on the Mulsanne edits, it made Le Mans more fun.

And of course, Le Mans is fun even without those things - ferris wheels, fireworks, and, you know, the whole twenty-four hours of motor racing thing - all make for appointment television for racing nerds like me, but it is something I've noticed coming out of the 2024 race.

So does Le Mans need to change? No, i don't think so.

I like seeing cars coming down the Mulsanne, I like seeing the Ferrari hypercar racing against Toyota in addition to all the cars that do both IMSA and WEC, I like the announcers getting increasingly delirious as it gets into the night stint, and I like the fact that Valentino Rossi is now a BMW GT3 driver who competed at Le Mans.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona is probably more fun that Le Mans and its position on the calendar probably lets it get a handful of one-off drivers that may not be able to do Le Mans, but Le Mans also attracts plenty of unique talent as well. Ferrari doesn't do IMSA, nor does Toyota, nor does Valentino Rossi.

Would I like them to? Absolutely.

Am I fine with just having two different, successful endurance racing series on either side of the Atlantic? Absolutely. It's like the modern version of CART vs. Formula One as far as I'm concerned, only this time, I'm in a position to enjoy it.

So yeah, there are some things I prefer about IMSA, but there's plenty I love about Le Mans as well.

Hell, the fact that after the sister Ferrari won last year, we got to see the #50 Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina, and Antonio Fuoco win. Both cars have now won Le Mans, and this means that last year's Antonio Giovinazzi, and this year's Antonio Fuoco - two drivers I've followed since the mid-to-late 2010s when they were actively in the open wheel junior series - are both Le Mans winners.

That's cool. I love the fact that drivers can fulfill their dream of winning for Ferrari, not just in Formula One, but now at Le Mans too. It's a great time to see, and between this and Indycar, I'm developing a lot of hope for talented junior drivers without F1 prospects.

Hell, on that very note, Felipe Drugovich raced at Le Mans for Action Express Cadillac this year, which seems to be his first time back in a major racing series since his F2 title campaign. Glad to see him back behind the wheel, just wish it went better for him.

Anyway, this last weekend of racing was a bit of a dud for me and I find myself busy yet again, so I'll leave the blogpost here, but do let you know what you think!

[visualvocabulary33]

[p1-norris]

this is a really miserable race for me fucking hell

[viper-motorsports]

Dale Earnhardt joined his son in piloting Corvette Racing’s N°3 Chevrolet Corvette C5-R to a GTS class victory with their overall fourth place finish in the 2001 24 Hours of Daytona.