Preview: Rolex Daytona 24 Hours

This weekend is host to the start of the IMSA Weathertech sports car championship in the U.S and the world famous Rolex Daytona 24 hours. This year the 24 is one filled with hype, exciting driver lineups, and new teams car combinations. The Rolex 24 for many is the start of the motorsport season and yes I know the Dubai 24 hours 2 weeks ago but to me, it's more of an amateur event rather than an iconic manufacturer fuelled 24-hour bloodbath like the Daytona 24. To me, Daytona will always be the real start of the motorsport calendar.

Last years race dominated by the intervention of the DPI class and with that the introduction of the very dominant Cadillac DPi-V.R. From the 3 Cadillacs entered it was the number 10 Cadillac driven by the Taylor brothers of Ricky and Jordan partnered with Max Angelelli and NASCAR icon Jeff Gordon and the number 5 driven by Barbosa, Fittipaldi, and Albuquerque that would endure a race long battle for victory. This battle would go on until the dying moments of the race when they would eventually collide with just under 10 minutes to go allowing the number 10 to take victory over the number 5 car.

This year the prototype class hopefully has the recipe for a good top flight fight with the very exciting changes such as the legendary team Joest formally operating the WEC Audi programme taking over what I rank as the best looking car on the grid the Mazda RT24-P dpi. The Mazda dpi programme has been marred by uncompetitiveness and unreliability since its inception. The 24 hours this weekend will show how far Joest have been able to update the cars and indicate if they can take on the Cadillac along with the Acura (probably not). A fantastic video uploaded by Racer.com details all the changes that Joest has made to the Mazda since the car was pulled halfway through last season. The majority of the improvements to the car have changed underneath the bodywork with redesigned suspension and weight saving across the whole car.

At the R.O.A.R, the signs of a close battle took a blow with testing completely dominated by Cadillac. In the qualifying at the end of the roar practice, the caddies swallowed up the top 4 spots with its front-running no 31 car over 1 second quicker than the fastest non-Cadillac prototype. Getting on to that fastest non-Cadillac, it was none other than the iconic Team Penske back in top flight American sports car racing with its new factory backed Acura ARX-05's. The fastest of the Acura's the number 6 car recorded a time of 01:36.988 with the sister number 7 car 1 place behind in 7th. Hopefully by the time the cars are back for the real show these times will be revealed as sandbagging times and B.O.P will have brought the cars closer. On the subject of sandbagging it is something that I find very frustrating about sportscar racing and like many, was very disappointed in the stunt that Ford pulled at Le Mans 2 season ago. I think that IMSA and the ACO need to look into ways to try and catch out teams that are sandbagging and be firm with its punishments to any team that exploits the B.O.P process. The deterrent that I would enforce to stop the art of sandbagging would be to deprive a team of its championships its won from that particular event if their lap time data showed an extraordinary increase in pace from the pace that the car showed in practice. It's also worth noting that the cars during the R.O.A.R were running in very cold conditions which probably means that these times won't be representative.

One team that definitely won't be slowed down by B.O.P will be the United Autosport with its very high profile lineups including former F1 drivers Paul di Resta and Bruno Senna in the number 32 machine while F1 prospect Lando Norris and F1's tough guy who goes by the name of Fernando Alonso (never heard of him before) sharing the number 23 car . This line up will be interesting to watch especially with many of the well-known racers being endurance racing newbies but by no means would I write these guys off from a good result especially with the driving talent they have at their disposal. A win like Fernando said will be a big ask simply to the Ligier Gibson combo not being the fastest package on the grid but let's honest we are not going to be short of excitement if the Nando Lando team take the win, especially for us European race fans.

Other teams to look out for in the prototype class the would be the Nissan DPI cars from the Tequila Patron ESM squad, a team don't forget that ended last year with a win at Petit Le Mans. It will be interesting to see if that team has been able to take that momentum through the winter. Signs during the R.O.A.R test put them on a par with the ACURA machines. Another team you can never write off especially after the great season they had last year is the 2 car entry belonging to Jackie Chan DCR JOTA. The Oreca has got some speed in it but always seems finds its self slightly lagging behind the dpi cars so they will have to hope that some upgrades and good fortune can help them close that gap before race day on Saturday.

The GTLM field has received a new competitor this year in the form of BMW and their new m8 racecar. Their R.O.A.R pace didn't excite being at the back of the GTLM class but you can probably tie this down to the outfit shaking the car down and getting rid of teething problems considering its the car's first competitive event. Ford was consistently at the front of the GTLM field during the R.O.A.R event but obviously, everyone expects the Corvettes, Porsches and the Risi Competizione Ferrari to be very close to the Fords on race day.

In the GTD class, things were very close to the front with 4 different manufacturers within 3 tenths of each other. The Lamborghini of the GRT Grasser Racing Team posted the fastest time in GTD during the R.O.A.R qualifying session with an effort of 01:47.374 closely followed by the Audi of Magnus Racing and Wright Motorsports Porsche coming home in 3rd. Again like every other class during the R.O.A.R these times are probably far from showing the full picture of who's looking fast for the race but knowing how close the GTD pack it will be the team that makes the least mistakes not necessarily the fastest who takes the chequered flag on Sunday.

As Saturday draws closer I like many of you am very excited to see how this year Daytona 24 plays out. Over the years Daytona has thrown up some incredible races especially in recent years with the last gasp battles to the finish line in multiple classes. The beauty of endurance racing is that its hard to predict due to the nature of the task that the teams have before them. Let's hope this year's race is a classic too.

Class Winner Predictions

Prototype: 10 - Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R - Ryan Hunter-Reay/Jordan Taylor/Renger van Der Zande

GTLM: 66 - Ford Chip Ganassi Racing - Joey Hand/Dirk Mueller/Sebastien Bourdais

GTD: 19 - GRT Grasser Racing Team - Louis Machiels/ Ezequiel Perez Companc /Christopher Lenz /Max van Splunteren/ Christian Engelhart

Thanks for reading

Adam Flynn