Hour 00:00: The 60th Rolex 24 at Daytona is a significant milestone, but the sports car racing world has its eyes on next year. 2023 marks the debut of LMDh rules in the class IMSA has announced will be called GTP and the first chance for existing Le Mans Hypercar manufacturers to bring their cars to race for overall wins in America, making the next Rolex 24 the beginning of the era that could save sports car racing. But before that future, we have one more race in the present.
In DPi, class stalwarts Acura and Cadillac are left alone. With no plans to develop an LMDh car for GTP, Mazda has withdrawn from the championship entirely. They join Nissan as a former DPi manufacturer and leave the class to the two brands that have been dominant since they joined it. The last overall winner for both Acura and Cadillac is Wayne Taylor Racing, whose No. 10 Acura will start from pole and again be the favorite today. Their toughest competition will come from Cadillac’s newly-christened factory team, a two-car contingent of Chip Ganassi Racing entries piloted entirely by all stars of sports car and IndyCar racing. Former Rolex winners Meyer Shank Racing and Action Express Racing, plus one entry from JDC Miller’s Mustang Sampling team, will try their best to stop the favorites.
In the new-for-2022 GTD Pro, the former GTLM class leaders at Corvette and BMW have struggled in practice to adapt to the GT3-based ruleset that pro-am teams have used over the past few years. Corvette’s C8.R has been balanced into the class, where it has so far proven uncompetitive with the GT3 cars. BMW’s new M4 GT3, meanwhile, is unproven and has struggled to compete with Daytona stalwarts from Porsche, Lamborghini, Mercedes, and Lexus. It is the TR3 Racing Lamborghini that starts the race from pole, just ahead of the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche.
The pro-am variant of the same class, just called GTD, still boasts a healthy grid of its own. The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 starts from pole in class and third overall among GT entries, just ahead of the No. 59 Crucial Motorsports entry. Although the manufacturer has previously competed in shorter IMSA rounds, that car is the first McLaren GT3 racer to contest this 24 hour classic.
PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports starts the LMP2 class in 1-2 formation, while Andretti Autosport leads the way in the LMP3 category.
The race gets underway shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET. With a packed 61-car grid, expect a chaotic first hour.
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