Motorsport Week examined the 61-car provisional entry list for the 63rd running of the IMSA 24 Hours of Daytona on 25-26 January 2025.
Last week IMSA released their entry list for the season-opener for the SportsCar Championship, boasting a fruitful spread of drivers, teams and manufacturers.
An absence of Aston Martin Valkyrie machinery does not overshadow an exciting entry list but also a record-breaking 12 GTP entrants.
Each of the four categories hosts a selection of key talking points and notable drivers – at least 20 of whom are former IMSA champions – will unquestionably guarantee for a thrilling spectacle once again.
Known for sponsorship reasons as the Rolex 24 at Daytona, IMSA is one of the few championships which opens their season both in January and with their longest race of the season.
More GTP cars than ever – 12 entries
With the absence of Lamborghini Iron Lynx at last year’s Daytona, their #63 SC63 will finally make its race debut in the most-ever Grand Touring Prototype entrants for this race.
They have confirmed a sterling driver lineup featuring reigning DTM champion Mirko Bortolotti, former F1 drivers Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat plus ‘Mr Macau’ himself, Edoardo Mortara.
The majority of seats have been confirmed in the GTP category and includes key alterations such as both Porsche Penske 963s each running three-driver crews.
Two drivers who were part of the #7-winning crew in the 2024 event, Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr, are both in separate cars.
Meanwhile it will be exciting to see Mathieu Jaminet partner with Campbell as #6 full-season drivers with Kevin Estre carrying out his first of three Endurance Cup assists.
In the #7, Nasr is joined by Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor; Estre and Vanthoor enter this race with high spirits as 2024 WEC Hypercar Drivers’ champions.
Porsche Penske will be under pressure again to see if they can defend their win.
Elsewhere, Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) have both of their Acura ARX-06 GTPs ready on their IMSA comeback, and Honda factory driver Kakunoshin Ohta’s debut.
In light of Chip Ganassi’s departure, six-time IndyCar champion and four-time Daytona 24 Hours winner Scott Dixon joined MSR as does reigning triple-IndyCar champion Alex Palou.
Wayne Taylor Racing are running Cadillac machinery again, this time with the V-Series.R package, and boast two talented lineups.
Cadillac Whelen continue with their #31 V-Series.R now with Felipe Drugovich joining them for a second time – after Le Mans – and Frederik Vesti who first undertook his laps in a Cadillac at the WEC Rookie Test.
Hotshots fulfil all-Oreca 07 LMP2 grid – 12 entries
All 12 Le Mans Prototype 2 cars are Oreca 07-Gibsons which should only keep the competition close together as demonstrated at events like Le Mans.
Two notable names have jumped from GTP to LMP2, being Dane Cameron and Sebastien Bourdais.
Cameron was part of last year’s #7 Porsche Penske GTP-winning crew whilst four-time IndyCar champion Bourdais recently won at the Petit Le Mans season finale, which was Chip Ganassi’s final IMSA race – for now at least.
Cameron will co-drive AO Racing’s ‘Spike the Dragon’ along with Christian Rasmussen, who was part of the Era Motorsport crew who won the 2024 race.
Speaking of whom, the reigning LMP2 winner utilises an interesting driver lineup featuring the IMSA debut of Shopify CEO, Tobias Lutke.
IndyCar drivers Callum Ilott and Pietro Fittipaldi will join Pratt Miller for their first LMP2 Daytona endeavour.
PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports and Inter Europol Competition are individual programmes looking to fight at the top in their separate efforts.
United Autosports USA, once again, are the only team with two LMP2 entrants thus enjoying more presence on the grid and an arguably higher chance of turning victory once Sunday (26 January) afternoon arrives.
Professionals set to jostle in GTD Pro – 15 entries
Heart of Racing (HOR) have their exciting GTP effort from the 12 Hours of Sebring once the Valkyrie is finalised and homologated, so they have one Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.
HOR fields a lineup who are familiar with IMSA: Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas, plus Roman De Angelis and triple WEC champion Marco Sorensen.
At Ford Multimatic, Sebastien Priaulx has replaced Harry Ticknell‘s former spot in the #64 Mustang GT3.
Priaulx was a full-season driver before he withdrew midway through 2024, leaving Julien Andlauer and to replace him in AO Racing‘s #77 Porsche 911 GT3.R entrant.
Bachler and Laurin Heinrich are continuing to pilot the reigning champion – ‘Rexy the Dinosaur’ – as Alessio Picarello will join the pair for the opener.
Pfaff Motorsports has switched from their McLaren 720S GT3 EVO to the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 package, having not yet confirmed their lineup.
In spite of the exciting teams across nine manufacturers, driven by factory-level drivers, the Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R entry is by far the most intriguing.
Reigning LMP2 winner and young sensation Connor Zilisch found success across IMSA, Trans-Am, MX5 Cup, the NASCAR Trucks and Xfinity Series during 2024.
He will continue his Trackhouse Racing affiliation into next year with an Xfinity Series drive at JR Motorsports but will enter this year’s Daytona 24 Hours in a GT3 car.
Triple Supercars champions Scott McLaughlin – also a Penske IndyCar driver – and Shane van Gisbergen, who is also a Trackhouse driver, will join him.
‘Super-Bronze’ Ben Keating is duel-wielding two Daytona seats in LMP2 and GTD Pro machinery.
As a result, the #91 Corvette will surely receive a plethora of attention in the GTD Pro category.
Packed GTD field features regulars and newbies – 22 entries
Last but certainly not least, we have the GTD class encompassing the most entrants out of all the categories.
There are a mixture of new drivers and regular names in this packed field.
This will be the Iron Dames‘ first 24-hour race since partnering with Porsche and receiving technical support from Proton Competition, who are also running the #20 GTD Pro entry.
Karen Gaillard will take on her first such endurance race assisting Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting pursue more positive results than their Lamborghini last year.
She partnered upcoming WEC debutant Celia Martin in the Le Mans Cup, who credited Gaillard for her help in their campaign together in an interview with Motorsport Week.
After commanding the 2024 season including winning Daytona, Winward Racing are back for more in their Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Former Cadillac Whelen GTP driver Pipo Derani will drive for DXDT along with Salih Yoluc, Alec Udell and Charlie Eastwood in their Corvette.
Out of the nine manufacturers represented, seven GTDs are using the Ferrari 296 GT3 package to give the Maralleno manufacturer a noteworthy presence in GTD.
Van der Steur Racing are a new name to IMSA competition and so field the #19 Aston Martin with drivers Rory van der Steur, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Maxime Robin.
All-in-all, we should expect a great season-opener to the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship with the thrills and spills yet to unfold in an exciting campaign.
See here for the full provisional entry list for the 2025 running of the 24 Hours of Daytona.
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