IMSA released the entry list for the ROAR Before the 24 Wednesday (Jan. 8). Since teams are required to attend the ROAR in order to compete in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, it can be considered an updated entry list for the Rolex 24 as well. Once again, 61 teams are entered.
The GTP class will have 12 teams on the grid. For Cadillac, Action Express Racing will be joined by Wayne Taylor Racing’s two cars, which return to the Cadillac fold after running Acuras.
Porsche has their two factory entries, plus the customer cars from Proton Competition and JDC-Miller MotorSports. Since December, a couple of changes have been made.
At Proton, Neel Jani will drive with Tristan Vautier and Nico Pino listed. JDC-Miller MotorSports announced earlier this week that Gianmaria Bruni will drive thier Porsche full-time alongside Tijmen van der Helm will be joined for at least Daytona by Bryce Aron, who races in Indy NXT by Firestone.
BMW has their two factory M Hybrid V8s run by Team RLL, but with a substantial driver shakeup. Only Philipp Eng will be back with the team full-time from last year.
Eng will share the No. 24 full-time with Dries Vanthoor, Laurens’ younger brother, who will run full-time for the first time. The No. 25 will have Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann.
Kevin Magnussen, most recently of Haas F1 Team, was announced as a new factory driver for BMW last week. He’ll be full-time in the WEC and run part-time in the No. 24 BMW in IMSA.
Acura has their two cars that are being run by Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian. Their final driver, Kakunoshin Ohta, was announced Wednesday for a three-race schedule in the No. 93.
Lamborghini Iron Lynx is back with their SC63. The manufacturer is not going to be involved in the WEC this year, so IMSA will be the only place you’ll see their prototype race.
LMP2 has 12 teams entered. CrowdStrike Racing by APR is back after parking their program in July after computers running Microsoft Windows were brought to their knees by a faulty CrowdStrike update. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz is back full-time with a collection of co-drivers including INDYCAR regular Colton Herta.
United Autosports just announced their full lineups Wednesday. In No. 2, the previously-announced Ben Hanley will be joined by defending LMP2 champion Nick Boulle. The TBDs on the entry list will be Oliver Jarvis, who moves from Pfaff Motorsports and Garnet Patterson.
The No. 22 will have full-time drivers Paul di Resta and Dan Goldburg joined by James Allen. The fourth driver (not listed on the entry list) will be Rasmus Lindh.
Inter Europol Competition and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports will each have their own entries, while Pratt Miller Motorsports has their own car with Chris Cumming joining Pietro Fittipaldi full-time.
There are 15 GTD Pro teams entered. Longtime regulars such as Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, Paul Miller Racing, Vasser Sullivan, Ford Multimatic Motorsports and defending champions AO Racing are entered. As of this writing, Paul Miller Racing has not announced any of their drivers for the season.
The Heart of Racing announced that they will have a one-off GTD Pro entry for Daytona with a familiar group of drivers. All four of the drivers listed drove for the team last year, either in GTD Pro or GTD.
Pfaff Motorsports announced Dec. 12 that they have switched from McLaren to Lamborghini for 2025. Their lineup for Daytona will consist of Lamborghini factory racers Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper, along with the returning James Hinchcliffe.
Vasser Sullivan announced a revised driver lineup for 2025 between their two cars. Ben Barnicoat will stay in the No. 14, but he will now share it full-time with Aaron Telitz. Kyle Kirkwood will drive an endurance schedule for the team, Townsend Bell will drive in Daytona in addition to TV duties with NBC Sports.
Proton Competition will field a Porsche for Claudio Schiavoni and Matteo Cressoni, both of which drove for Iron Lynx this past season. They’ll be joined by Richard Lietz and Thomas Preining, longtime Porsche racers.
DragonSpeed announced Dec. 11 that Albert Costa will drive their Ferrari full-time in 2025. The team also switched classes after having been previously announced as running in GTD.
Finally, Trackhouse Racing is teaming up with TF Sport to run what amounts to an all-star race. Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch will be in the Corvette. In a change from back on Dec. 12, WeatherTech will serve as the team’s primary sponsor.
There are 22 teams entered in the GTD class. There aren’t too many surprises here. 2023 GTP champion Pipo Derani will be driving for DXDT Racing, while Andy Lally will make his final major start for Magnus Racing.
Vasser Sullivan’s No. 12 will have Jack Hawksworth partner full-time with Parker Thompson. Frankie Montecalvo, who has driven the No. 12 since 2019, will cut back to just the Michelin Endurance Cup races in 2025. Finally, Kirkwood will split time between both of the Vasser Sullivan cars in Daytona.
AF Corse has two part-time entries. One is the existing No. 21 Ferrari that ran part-time last year. The other is the No. 50 with Custodio Toledo sharing with Riccardo Agostini, Arthur Leclerc and Conrad Laursen.
Of the quartet of drivers, only Agostini has competed in WeatherTech previously. Toledo, Laursen and Arthur Leclerc, the younger brother of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, will be making their IMSA debuts. In an interview with Frontstretch last summer, Jordan Taylor gave Laursen a glowing review.
At Gradient Racing, Joey Hand will lead the team, while Till Bechtolsheimer returns to the team for the first time since 2022. Tatiana Calderon returns as well. These three drivers will drive in all five Michelin Endurance Cup races this year. Harry Tincknell will join up for Daytona.
Eric Filguerias will make his WeatherTech debut with Lone Star Racing. He’ll share the No. 80 Mercedes with team owner Dan Knox, Scott Andrews and Ralf Aron.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship ROAR Before the 24/Rolex 24 at Daytona Entry List
There are a number of teams that have unconfirmed drivers at this point. Others have signed their drivers, but those drivers do not have 2025 IMSA licenses as of yet.
A couple of teams that were on the list of full-season teams released during the State of the Sport address in October are not on the list. The most notable of the bunch is The Heart of Racing’s No. 23 in the GTP class. This is going to be the new Aston Martin Valkyrie. While that car did participate during an open test in Daytona back in December, the car will make its official racing debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship opener in Qatar in February. The Valkyrie is currently scheduled to debut in IMSA at Sebring.
Lamborghini also had a team in the GTD Pro class on the full season list known as Automobili Lamborghini with the No. 163. It appears that with Pfaff Motorsports switching to Lamborghini, this entry will no longer be necessary.
The ROAR Before the 24 test weekend is Jan. 17-19. Unlike recent years, qualifying for the Rolex 24 will not be part of the weekend. Regardless, Frontstretch will be on-site during both the ROAR and Rolex 24 weekends to bring you the action.
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.
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