Preliminary Entry List: Rolex 24 at Daytona

IMSA released a very preliminary entry list Tuesday (Nov. 14) for January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. There are 60 teams on the list, split between the four classes that will contest the race.

The GTP class has the 10 full-time entries in the class, as revealed back in October during the State of the Sport address at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The entry list reveals Porsche Penske Motorsport’s lineups. Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet are back in the No. 6 full-time with Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor. Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr are in the No. 7 along with INDYCAR regular Josef Newgarden and Frederic Makowiecki.

BMW M Team RLL has some changes in their No. 24. Dries Vanthoor (Laurens’ younger brother) is in the car along with Augusto Farfus and Jesse Krohn. Farfus’ 2023 full-time teammate Philipp Eng is not listed.

Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti fully confirmed their 2024 lineups Tuesday. They completed the lineups with the addition of Marcus Ericsson (No. 10) and Jenson Button (No. 40).

JDC-Miller MotorSports confirmed Tuesday that Richard Westbrook will drive full-time for the team alongside Tijmen van der Helm. Phil Hanson and Ben Keating join for Daytona.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona GTP Class Preliminary Entry List

In LMP2, there are 12 entries. New teams in the class include Riley Motorsports and Sean Creech Motorsports, who moved up after the dissolution of the LMP3 class. Note that Sean Creech Motorsports will be running the only Ligier JS P217-Gibson in the class.

TDS Racing is back, but with only one car after running two entries full-time in 2023. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports has partnered with the Polish Inter Europol Competition to run the No. 52. Only longtime Inter Europol driver Jakub Smiechowski has been confirmed to this point.

United Autosports is back in the series after a year away, this time with two full-time cars. Keating will drive the No. 2 with Ben Hanley. Yes, Keating will drive cars in two different classes, although the No. 2 is his full-time entry. Dan Goldburg and Paul di Resta will be in the No. 22.

AO Racing has a new full-time LMP2 entry. Team owner PJ Hyett will drive alongside Paul-Loup Chatin, who moves over from PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona LMP2 Class Preliminary Entry List

There are 13 teams entered in the GTD Pro class, 11 of them full-time. The part-timers are Iron Lynx with their No. 19 Lamborghini and SunEnergy1 Racing with a Mercedes.

Ford Multimatic Motorsports will have their two factory Ford Mustang GT3s on the grid. The full-time lineups were announced back in October at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Additional drivers have not been announced yet.

Paul Miller Racing moves up to GTD Pro with Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow after winning the last two GTD championships. They’re joined by Neil Verhagen and Sheldon van der Linde.

Kellymoss with Riley’s No. 92 Porsche and AO Racing’s No. 77 Porsche (formerly No. 80) have also moved up to GTD Pro. Sebastian Priaulx will stay in the car, but Hyett has been replaced by Laurin Heinrich.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona GTD Pro Class Preliminary Entry List

In the GTD class, there are 25 teams entered. A couple of the teams were not listed during the State of the Sport address.

The most notable of these teams is Proton Competition, which has earned an entry for one of their new Ford Mustang GT3s. They will be Ford’s representative in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s new LMGT3 class starting next year. DailySportsCar.com reported that Boris Said tested for the team at Portimao back in October.

Another is Lone Star Racing, which returned to the series at Indianapolis back in September with their IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge regular drivers (Scott Andrews and Anton Dias Perera). With AO Racing switching numbers, they are back to No. 80.

MDK Motorsports will have two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs. The No. 86 with Anders Fjordbach and Kerong Li driving is their full-time entry. The No. 53 is a more recent addition.

There are a few interesting additions. Eddie Cheever III is listed with Cetilar Racing, while Francois Heriau will be in AF Corse’s No. 21 Ferrari. Heriau raced for TDS Racing in LMP2 in 2023 before he was sidelined by an off-track injury.

The list also confirmed returning drivers, such as Katherine Legge and Sheena Monk to Gradient Racing and Forte Racing/US RaceTronics’ Misha Goikhberg and Loris Spinelli. Turner Motorsport will have Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher back in their BMW.

Wright Motorsports still has one entry, the No. 120 Porsche. While they haven’t announced any drivers, it is possible that Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer will drive this car. Frontstretch talked to Adelson about this after the final Pilot Challenge race of the year in October.

"Come January, we probably have a pretty good hot rod to go race."

NOLAsport’s Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer discuss their second-place finish, what Adelson has learned over the past couple of years & potentially moving up to WeatherTech with Wright Motorsports:

📹 @Critic84… pic.twitter.com/iEkrZZIZN7

— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) October 13, 2023

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona GTD Class Preliminary Entry List

There were many more teams that expressed interest in competing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona than the 60 that made it onto the preliminary entry list. Should any of the teams on the preliminary lists withdraw from the race, IMSA will grant an entry to the first team on the reserve list. That list is not public.

Additional drivers will be confirmed as the offseason continues. Teams will gather in Daytona Beach for the ROAR Before the 24 the weekend of Jan. 19-21 to prepare ahead of the 24-hour classic.