Who to watch in the 24 Hours of Daytona

Seven Australians and two New Zealanders will vie for glory in this weekend’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.

The opening race of the IMSA SportsCar Championship is made up of five classes; DPi, LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro, and GTD.

DPi, the top division, is where New Zealand’s two drivers will compete.

Six-time IndyCar Series winner Scott Dixon and two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Earl Bamber will represent the island nation.

Coincidentally, the pair are team-mates in this year’s race at Cadillac Racing.

Dixon will pilot the #01 Cadillac DPi-V.R alongside Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais, and Alex Palou.

Bamber, meanwhile, will drive the sister #02 entry with Alex Lynn, Marcus Ericsson, and Kevin Magnussen.

The #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 will start from pole position with Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Alexander Rossi, and Will Stevens having won the Roar Before the 24 qualifying race.

Australia will have one driver competing in the LMP2 division.

James Allen will join John Falb, Luca Ghiotto, and Tijmen van der Helm at G-Drive Racing By APR in the #69 Oreca 07.

PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports will start that class from pole position with Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen, Scott Huffaker, and Nicolas Lapierre in their #52 Oreca 07.

Two Australians will feature in the LMP3 ranks.

Cameron Shields will pilot the #26 Muehlner Motorsports America-run Duqueine D08 with Nolan Siegel, C. R. Crews, Ugo de Wilde.

Josh Burdon will race for the iconic Andretti Autosport, sharing a Ligier JS P320 with Jarett Andretti, Rasmus Lindh, and Gabby Chaves in the #36 car.

Andretti and Burdon won the Roar Before the 24 qualifying race, meaning they will start from pole position.

This year marks the first Rolex 24 At Daytona run to IMSA’s new GT regulations.

Previously, there have been two categories; GTLM (GT Le Mans) and GTD (GT Daytona).

GTLM, which was previously home to factory GT efforts, has been dissolved.

Now, the GT3 ranks have been split into GTD Pro and GTD.

GTD Pro is restricted to Platinum, Gold, and Silver rated drivers, while GTD is effectively a Pro-Am set-up with Bronze drivers eligible as well.

Matt Campbell is the only Australian to feature in the GTD Pro field in the Pfaff Motorsport-run #9 Porsche 911 GT3 R with Mathieu Jaminet and Felipe Nasr.

TR3 Racing with its #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo will start from pole position with Rolf Ineichen, Marco Mapelli, Andrea Caldarelli, and Mirko Bortolotti.

James Davison and Scott Andrews will join forces in a Mercedes-AMG GT3, joining Mike Skeen and Stevan McAleer in the #32 entry at Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports.

Kenny Habul will make his fifth Daytona start in the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG. He’ll be joined by Luca Stolz, Raffaele Marciello, and Fabian Schiller.

The GTD field will be led by the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Mikael Grenier, and Lucas Auer.

The Rolex 24 At Daytona is scheduled to start on January 30 at 05:40 (AEDT) with live coverage carried by IMSA TV.

Trans-Tasman Rolex 24 At Daytona entries