The official start of IMSA's 50th Apex is here with the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. The 24 hour endurance contest features a 47 car grid across 4 classes. This year's race marks the split up of the Prototype class as DPi & LMP2 will be separated. Several new teams & groups are involved in the series this season, such as: Michelin being the sole tire supplier for the series, new & returning teams such as Juncos, PFAFF, Starworks & AIM Vasser Sullivan, and a new television partner for the USA with NBC Sports.
The field features 15 Prototypes & 32 GT cars across the 4 classes, with cars from Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mazda, Mercedes-AMG, Nissan, Oreca & Porsche.
DPi sees the addition of JDC-Miller Motorsports, Juncos Racing & CORE Autosport. JDC-Miller & Juncos will run Cadillac's, while CORE Autosport takes over the Nissan which was previously raced by Extreme Speed Motorsports. Action Express comes in as the defending overall race winners, Pipo Derani & Mike Conway join their 2 cars this season. Mazda has shown some speed after unofficially breaking the track record at the Roar, the big question is if they will make the distance this year. Wayne Taylor Racing has a couple open wheel hotshots on their lineup with Fernando Alonso & Kamui Kobayashi as endurance drivers. Representing the current IndyCar field in DPi is Acura Team Penske with Alexander Rossi & Simon Pagenaud running as their endurance drivers. Romain Dumas & Loic Duval joins CORE Autosport in the #54 Nissan. Among the endurance lineup for JDC-Miller includes Rubens Barrichello & Juan Piedrahita. LMP2 only features 4 cars from DragonSpeed, Performance Tech & PR1.
GTLM features a mostly-unchanged lineup across the factory teams of Ford, Corvette & Porsche, one of the BMW Team RLL entries is certainly a fan favorite with Alex Zanardi running in the #24 car (along with VASC regular Mostert, John Edwards & Jesse Krohn). Ford Chip Ganassi Racing is defending class winner with their #67 car (Briscoe, Westbrook, Dixon)
GTD features the return of Starworks Motorsports with their #8 Audi R8 (Daizlel, Chase, Hasse & Perez Companc is the driver lineup), AIM Vasser Sullivan will have a 2 car team for Lexus, driver lineup features a mix of past regulars with the 3GT team (Hawksworth, Cindric) along with Bell, Cassidy & Segal. Grasser Racing Team returns as the defending class winner, with Ineichen, Bortolotti, Engelhart & Breukers running the #11 Lamborghini. Paul Miller Racing will feature Bryan Sellers, Ryan Hardwick, Corey Lewis & Andrea Caldarelli in the #48 Lamborghini. Magnus Racing switches from Audi to Lamborghini for 2019. Meyer Shank Racing will have a all-female lineup on their #57 Acura NSX (Simona de Silvestro, Beatriz, Legge & Nielsen). Audi Canada will be running with WRT Speedstar in the #88 R8 (DeAngelis, Vervisch, van der Line & James), AJ Allmendinger & Justin Marks is apart of Meyer Shank's #86 Acura lineup along with Farnbacher & Hindman. Land Motorsport returns with their #29 Audi R8 once again with Morad, Mies & Vanthoor. NGT Motorsports is slated with a 5 driver lineup for their #99 Porsche.
Supporting the race weekend is the 4 hour endurance race for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge on Friday. The field features 35 cars within Grand Sport (GT4) and 14 TCR cars. Among the manufacturers in the field include: Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG & Porsche. Among the new entries include Bryan Herta Autosport and the factory Hyundai squad moving to IMSA after a year in SRO America's Touring Car series. HART, Atlanta Speedworx & LA Honda World are new to IMSA's TCR class, all 3 will be running Honda Civic's. Camaro vs. Mustang battle continues in GS once again. Ford has several teams running their Mustang GT4, 2 of those are entered with their factory drivers from both sports cars (Billy Johnson) and stock cars (Chase Briscoe, Cole Custer, Austin Cindric & Ty Majeski). Chevrolet has a lone entry with the #71 Rebel Rock team (Liddell, Davis, DePew). Porsche is debuting a fleet of all-new Cayman GT4 MR's on the worldwide stage at Daytona.
Race & Track Information:
Track Distance: 3.56 miles
Turns: 12
Race Distance: 24 hours
Sunset / Sunrise: 05:57PM / 07:15AM
Total of Laps Run in 2018: 808 laps / 2,876 miles
Official Track Record: 1:33.875 - P.J. Jones - Toyota GTP / 1993
Mazda Team Joest ran under the track record during this year's Roar Before the 24 with a 1:33.398
Entry Lists:
IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship - 47 cars entered (11 in DPI, 4 in LMP2, 9 in GTLM, 23 in GTD)
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge - 49 cars entered (35 in GS, 14 in TCR)
Spotter Guides:
SpotterGuides.com by Andy Blackmore
Essentials:
Timing & Scoring (Alkamel)
Radio LeMans (IMSA Radio)
Weather Forecast
Race History
IMSA Mobile App
IMSA IWSC Guide - Official Series Page
IMSA's 50th Apex - Official Series Page
TBK's Discord - (linked from 2018 thread)
On-Track Schedule (all times are local to the circuit - US/Eastern):
Spoiler:
Broadcast (Television / Streaming / Radio) Information:
Spoiler:
Onboard Lap:
AgustÃn Canapino - #50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPI-V.R. - Michelin Tire Testing (2018)
Track Map:
