Rolex 24 at Daytona
The final entry list has been released for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona. 59 teams are on it, down from 60 on the preliminary list.
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.
In LMP2, there are 13 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.
Finally, following a withdrawal, DragonSpeed was granted an entry for their No. 81 ORECA 07-Gibson off of the reserve list. INDYCAR regular/defending European Le Mans Series LMP2 champion Kyffin Simpson and James Allen will lead the team.
There are 13 teams entered in the GTD Pro class, 10 of them full-time. The part-timers are Iron Lynx with their two Lamborghinis 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. They will be joined by Christopher Mies (No. 64) and Frederic Vervisch.
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.
In the GTD class, there are 23 teams entered, down from 25 on the preliminary list. 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. At the time, it was listed as a one-off team for Daytona. Since then, Proton Competition has announced the No. 55 Ford as a full-time entry with Corey Lewis and Giammarco Levorato driving the complete season. Ryan Hardwick is in for the five Michelin Endurance Cup races and brings sponsorship from 1st Phorm for those races at minimum.
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. Andrews is in the car, but not Dias Perera.
MDK Motorsports will have only their full-time Porsche 911 GT3 R, run in concert with High Class Racing. The No. 86 with Anders Fjordbach and Kerong Li driving is their full-time entry. The No. 53 that was on the preliminary entry list has been withdrawn.
The other team to withdraw was Kellymoss with Riley’s No. 91 Porsche. No official reason has been given for the withdrawal, but it is the second straight withdrawal for the team. Alan Metni suffered a non-racing injury last year that resulted in the team not racing last October at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
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. Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer will drive this car in six races. Frontstretch talked to Adelson about this after the final Pilot Challenge race of the year in October.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona Entry List
BMW M Endurance Challenge
For the season opener for IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge in Daytona, there are 45 teams entered. This is a decrease of one team from the 46 that participated last year.
The Grand Sport class has 28 teams entered. Likely one of the most recognizable lineups in Daytona will be the No. 23 Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo entered by Smooge Racing. This car will be shared by NASCAR Cup Series regulars John Hunter Nemechek and Bubba Wallace, along with Corey Heim. All three will be making their series debut.
There are some new teams on the grid. For example, Skip Barber Racing School has entered an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for the first time. This car will be shared by Carter Fartuch, Ken Fukuda and Will Lambros. Fukuda is the IMSA Diverse Driver Scholarship winner for 2023 and will be full-time here. Fartuch and Lambros both raced Honda Civic Sis full-time in TC America last year.
JMF Motorsports has expanded into the series with Michai Stephens and Jesse Webb, their full-time drivers from Pirelli GT4 America SprintX last year. They should be formidable.
Accelerating Performance has officially rebadged as Baby Bull Racing. Michael Cooper told Frontstretch Sunday following IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Race No. 2 that the team will be full-time in Pilot Challenge and part-time in VP Racing SportsCar Challenge in 2024.
Hattori Motorsports, which raced part-time in 2023, will be full-time this year. In Daytona, they will run two Supras. One will be for Jack Hawksworth and Tyler Maxson. The other will be shared by Matt Forbush, Nick Galante and Mark Kvamme.
In TCR, there are 17 teams entered. The new Montreal Motorsports Group team will have two Honda Civic Type-R TCRs on the grid full-time in 2024. One car (No. 6) will be shared by former NASCAR racer Bryan Ortiz and Louis-Philippe Montour. The other will be shared by Daijiro Yoshihara and Karl Wittmer, brother of team co-owner Nick Wittmer.
Bryan Herta Autosport is back with four full-time cars in 2024. The Nos. 33 and 98 are unchanged for 2024. Robert Wickens is back to defend his title and beat his teammates, as he told Frontstretch during Media Day.
The other two are different. Bryson Morris, who debuted with the team at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in October, stays on to partner with Taylor Hagler full-time with a number change from No. 1 back to No. 77. The new fourth entry, No. 76, will be shared by Preston Brown, Nick Looijmans and Denis Dupont, all formerly of Rockwell Autosport Development.
Finally, Victor Gonzalez Racing Team (VGRT) is running three cars this weekend. The two Hyundais (No. 80 for Morgan Burkhard and Julian Santero; No. 99 for Tyler Gonzalez and Victor Gonzalez Jr.) will be the full-time cars. The No. 8 Honda for Colton Reynolds and Clayton Williams will only be at Daytona.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge BMW M Michelin Challenge Entry List
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.