RNW Staff

Aston Martin’s multiple championship-winning Vantage has added another glittering accolade to its growing legacy as one of the sport’s most successful GT cars by recording an emphatic class victory in the 61st Rolex 24 at Daytona on Sunday. A faultless performance by reigning IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar GTD class champions Heart of Racing [HOR] and drivers Roman De Angelis (CDN), Ian James (GBR), Darren Turner (GBR) and Marco Sørensen (DEN), underlined a winning start to the team’s title defence for the Seattle-based Aston Martin Racing partner team.

The 61st edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona, IMSA’s inaugural round, ends with Triarsi Competizione’s Ferrari 296 GT3 crossing the finish line tenth in the GTD class. The endurance race, during which the Maranello company’s new racing car made its debut, goes into the archives with a result below expectations. The consequences of three contacts caused retirements for the Ferraris of Risi Competizione, Cetilar Racing and AF Corse.

Despite not getting the results that Porsche Penske Motorsport would have liked in their debut event, both Porsche 963 show considerable pace at the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona at the historic Daytona International Speedway.

Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) with Curb-Agajanian ushered in a new era in American sports car racing, taking its second-consecutive victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona with the hybrid-powered No. 60 Acura ARX-06. Tom Blomqvist crossed the checkered flag, winning from the pole position and making history with the first GTP victory alongside teammates Colin Braun, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud. 

The two Porsche 963 fielded by the Porsche Penske Motorsport works team head into the final phase of the Daytona 24-hour race with mixed prospects. During the night, the No. 6 car at times led the field, only to lose ground in the early morning hours. After sunrise, the vehicle is running three laps behind the leading group. After a battery change on Saturday evening, the sister car is 18 laps down on the leader. In the two GTD classes, the customer teams are struggling with the poor BoP classification of the new Porsche 911 GT3 R.

WeatherTech Racing is competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 At Daytona and is currently leading in GTD Pro with six hours to go.

The official racing debut of the new Porsche 963 began on Saturday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway as the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship began with the annual 24 Hours of Daytona. The two cars from Porsche Penske Motorsport started second and ninth in the new GTP class.

Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) got off to a strong start in the opening hours of the 61st Running of the Rolex 24 Hours At Daytona which saw Tom Blomqvist take the lead in the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 LMDh after starting from pole position. After nearly nine hour of racing, the MSR Acura has led 117 laps as the 24 hour classic heads into the overnight hours.  

WeatherTech Racing is competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 At Daytona and is currently running second in GTD Pro.

After twelve hours of racing, the 24 Hours of Daytona continues to delight even if the Ferraris are forced to abandon their hopes of a podium finish in the GTD Pro class, while continuing to compete with the 296 GT3s still competing in the GTD category.

Sunny skies and a temperature around 20°C were the setting for the start of the 61st edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona, the endurance race that opens the IMSA SportsCar Championship season, which started at 1:40 p.m. local time. Large crowds lined the grandstands of the tri-oval in Florida to watch the endurance race, which has 61 cars entered, including four Ferrari 296 GT3s.

The countdown to the 61st edition of 24 Hours of Daytona is coming to an end as Cetilar Racing will take part for the third year in a row in the most famous American endurance race that will start tomorrow – Saturday 28th – at 13:40 local time.

On 16 December 2020, Porsche announced its commitment to developing an LMDh prototype for racing from January 2023. The prospect of fielding a vehicle in both the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the North American IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship proved to be the deciding factor for the Executive Board’s decision at Porsche AG. Less than five months later, Porsche divulged its close partnership with Team Penske. The new Porsche Penske Motorsport team for international racing was born. The squad operates out of two locations: The IMSA headquarters is in the American team’s home of Mooresville, North Carolina, with the WEC operations run from Mannheim, Germany. After the start of the active testing phase for the new prototypes in January 2022, the factory squad is about to celebrate its race debut in Daytona.

Defending IMSA DPi Champions and Rolex 24 At Daytona race winners Meyer Shank Racing are out to make history as the first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship winners of the GTP Era. The team has already written its name in the history books after earning pole position for the twice-around-the-clock race set to take the green flag on Saturday (1:30pm ET

The longest event on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship kicks off the 2023 sports car racing season this week, and AO Racing is revved up and ready for the series debut of the new No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 R (type 992). Sporting a tribute livery inspired by the 1983 race-winning Porsche 935, AO Racing hopes to celebrate victory of their own in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, a 24-hour endurance event that will begin Saturday, January 28 and conclude the following afternoon.

The countdown to the debut of the Ferrari 296 GT3 is over, with Maranello’s newest model set to feature in the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 61st edition of America’s leading endurance race held at the Daytona International Speedway. The opening act of the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship season will feature four 296 GT3 entrants, including the crew made up of official drivers Pier Guidi-Calado-Serra-Rigon in GTD Pro class, who will head off from ninth spot on the grid, as will Fuoco-Lacorte-Sernagiotto-Balzan in GTD class after an identical result in qualifying. The race gets the green light at 13.40 local time on Saturday, 28 January.

Just two months after the 2022 finale in Abu Dhabi, the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) launches into an exciting new season with the Bathurst 12 Hour (3 – 5 February). The race at the Mount Panorama Circuit also marks the beginning of Mercedes-AMG’s title defence. Last year, the performance and sports car brand from Affalterbach won three of the four races on the calendar to claim not only the manufacturers’ title but also both drivers’ championships.

The Rolex 24 At Daytona has arrived with Wright Motorsports and the No. 16 Porsche entering the week armed and ready to defend the team’s 2022 win in the GTD class. Last week, the team completed the Roar Before the 24, conducting the first shakedown of the new Porsche 911 GT3 R (type 992) at Daytona International Speedway. With official testing complete, race week activities begin, and thus the assault on the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title and the top honours in the iconic endurance event, January 28 – 29.

The ADAC GT Masters lines up in the 2023 season with a tried-and-tested concept, events attracting big crowds, a prize purse of more than € 570,000, and successfully established sustainable fuel. Six race weekends are scheduled in Germany and Austria, each featuring two races. For the first time for 15 years, the series is back at the Norisring in Nuremberg. The season gets underway from 9th to 11th June with a special event in Hockenheim.

The 2023 IMSA season begins on Friday, January 27th with the four-hour BMW M Endurance Challenge At Daytona, followed by the 61st Rolex 24 At Daytona over the weekend where BMW of North America Customer Racing teams will be well-represented throughout the Daytona International Speedway paddock. For more than ten years, BMW of North America […]