24 Hours of Daytona
The Rolex 24 at Daytona is an sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Since 1991, the Rolex Watch Co. is the title sponsor of the race under a naming rights arrangement, replacing Sunbank who in turn replaced Pepsi in 1984. Winning drivers of all classes receive a steel Rolex Cosmograph watch, with the race logo and year of race engraved at the back of the watch and is probably the most prestigious way to acquire one whilst skipping the infamous waiting list. The watch is considered as one of the most sought after non-vintage models should one appear up for sale.
In 2006, the race moved one week earlier into January to prevent a clash with the Super Bowl, which had in turn moved one week later into February a few years earlier. In effect, these two major events switched dates.
Beginnings
In 1962, a few years after the track was built, a 3 hour sportscar racing event was introduced, the Daytona Continental, and counted towards the World Sportscar Championship. The first Continental was won by Dan Gurney, driving a Ford-powered Lotus 19 despite being a factory driver for Porsche at that time. Many Porsche 718 were driven by privateers, but these 1600cc cars were considered rather underpowered for a short and fast race despite having won the at the twisty Targa Florio or the tough 12 Hours of Sebring.
In 1964, the event was expanded to 2000km (1220 miles), doubling the classic 1000km distance of races at Nürburgring, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and Autodromo Nazionale Monza. While the distance amounted to roughly the half of the distance the 24 Hours of Le Mans winners covered at that time, it was similar in length to the Sebring 12 Hours, held elsewhere in Florida a few weeks later each year. Starting in 1966, though, the Daytona race was styled after the even more famous 24 Hours of Le Mans race itself.
24h History
As in the Spa 24 Hours (introduced in 1924) and the 24 Hours Nürburgring (since 1970), the purpose of the event is to determine which team of drivers can take their sports car or Gran Turismo the farthest in a fixed time period (24 h), rather than the shortest time over a fixed distance as in conventional auto racing.
Unlike the French Le Mans event, the Daytona race is conducted entirely over a closed course within the speedway arena without the use of any public streets. Most parts of the steep banking are included, interrupted with a chicane on the back straight and some sweeps in the infield behind the pit lane. As the French classic is held in the middle of June, the night there is as short as possible, unlike at the Daytona race, which is held in the wintertime (as of 2006, the race is held in the last week of January) or early February in the longest of all 24 Hours race nights. However, the drama and challenge of nighttime endurance racing has been dampened a bit in recent years, as lights installed around the circuit to allow night racing (and therefore prime-time television coverage) by the headlight-less cars of NASCAR in the late 1990s are left on, substantially reducing the darkness along the course (with the infield section still not as well-lit as the main oval). However, the stadium lights are turned on only to a level of 20%, similar to the stadium lights at Le Mans, where the track is lit similarly, with brighter lights around the pit straight, and decent lighting similar to street lights around the circuit.
A car must cross the finish line after 24 hours to be classified, which leads to dramatic scenes where damaged cars wait in the pits or on the edge of the track close to the finish line for hours, then restart their engines and crawl across the finish line one last time in order to finish after the 24 hours and be listed with a finishing distance, rather than dismissed with DNF (Did Not Finish). This was the case in the initial 1962 Daytona Continental (then 3 hours), when Gurney's Lotus had established a lengthy lead when the engine died, and he parked it at the top of the banking, just short of the finish line. When the three hours had elapsed, Gurney drove the car the last few feet across the finish line using either gravity, the starter motor, or a combination of both (the debate continues to this day) to not only salvage a finishing position, but actually win the race.
After having lost in 1966 both at Daytona and at Le Mans to the Fords, the Ferrari Prototypes staged a triumphant 1-2-3 side-by-side parade finish at the banked finish line in 1967. To celebrate the victory over the rival at his home race, Ferrari named its V12-powered road car Ferrari Daytona after the race.
Porsche repeated this show in their 1-2-3 win in the 1968 24 Hours. After the car of Gerhard Mitter had a big crash caused by tyre failure in the banking, his teammate Rolf Stommelen supported Vic Elford/Jochen Neerpasch. When the car of the longtime leaders Jo Siffert/Hans Herrmann dropped to second due to a technical problem, these two also joined the new leaders while continuing with their car. So Porsche managed to put 5 of 8 drivers on the center of the podium, plus Jo Schlesser/Joe Buzzetta on 3rd place, with only Mitter being left out.
In 1972, due to the energy crisis, the race was shortened to 6 hours, while for 1974 the race was cancelled altogether.
In 1982, following near continous includion on the World Sportscar Championship, the race was finally dropped as the series attempted to cut costs by using shorter races then before, as well as to have to force teams to fly equipment outside of Europe. The race continued on as part of the IMSA GT series.
The regular teams were expanded to 3 pilots in the 1970s. Nowadays, often 4 drivers compete, with occasional "taxi" rides for less lucky team mates adding to the total as sportsmanship to support "total team effort" dedication, up to seven in the winning car of 1997.
Grand American & Daytona Prototypes
After IMSA had it ups and downs, the Daytona event now belongs to the Grand-Am series, which has different organizers and rules than the Le Mans-based ALMS series. The links to NASCAR are close, the focus is on USA-based technology (large-displacement, normally-aspirated engines are the norm) and personnel.
In order to make sports car racing less expensive than elsewhere, new rules were introduced in 2002. The dedicated Daytona Prototypes (DP) do not use expensive materials and technologies, and simple aerodynamics reduce the often highly expensive effort of development and testing. On the other hand, especially the rather big and wide closed cockpits with their full size roll cages look clumsy compared to the slim, sophisticated and fast Audi R8, BMW V12, Porsche 911 GT1, Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR and others that dominated Sportscar racing elsewhere since the late 1990s.
However, the "clumsy" look has been able to control speeds and aerodynamic controversies for safety, something which has been an issue at Le Mans in recent years, as shown in the notorious Mercedes-Benz flyovers at that circuit in the late 1990's.
Specialist chassis makers provide the DP cars:
The engines are also often delivered by specialists and only branded as major names. Unlike elsewhere, the vehicles are designated Engine-Chassis at Daytona, as the chassis makers are rather unknown and don't sell road cars, similar to many specialised race car manufacturers. Changes are being made for 2007, however, with new rules encouraging chassis makers and automobile manufacturers to manufacture special chassis for one type of car only. Such would permit manufacturers to "label" the cars as prototype versions of their roadgoing bretheren.
In 2003, with the new DPs being few, slow and unreliable, even a road-car based Porsche 996 GT3-RS has managed to win overall, despite only being entered in the third fastest class.
The Stars Align
As the Rolex 24 has a winter date during off-season for other racing series, many top class drivers are able and willing to take part in the Rolex if sponsorship commitments allow this. The track's marketing machine has aggressively sold the roll call of champions, with track officials focusing on the presence of professional-level racing champions and superstars in the race.
Recently retired NASCAR star Rusty Wallace joined IRL superstar Danica Patrick in the 2006 race, while Tony Stewart has gained a reputation of "checkers or wreckers" after his gallant 2004 drive with a badly stricken car in the lead, while attempting to nurse it to victory with less than 20 minutes remaining, the suspension finally gave up and Stewart crashed. Indy 500 champions Buddy Rice and Dan Wheldon have also made appearances in the race, with Wheldon's 2006 victory in the Rolex the first time a reigning Indy champion had won the classic. Previous Rolex 24 races have featured Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (the two were paired in the 2001 race, a memorable moment in the history of sportscar racing, and it is said they began this revival of the all-star format), Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, Paul Tracy, Sébastien Bourdais, Kurt Busch, Kyle Petty, Randy LaJoie, and stars who have raced in every major form of motorsport.
The drivers seem to enjoy the all-star showdown, although the presence of these "ringers" has, along with the relatively primative formula governing the cars, drawn the ire of sportscar-racing purists, who tend to view the series as a dumbed-down version of "real" sportscar racing. Many observers, on the other hand, believe the presence of these visiting stars is beneficial. They argue the racing only intensifies when a handful of top-flight drivers from other forms of motorport decide to take on the road racing aces. For example, the star power added to the field created some passionate driving in the 2006 race.
The 2007 Rolex field is expected to be full of such stars. Jeff Gordon will drive the Wayne Taylor #10 SunTrust Pontiac, with Michael Shank Racing having Indianapolis 500 champions Hélio Castroneves and reigning IRL and Indianapolis 500 champion Sam Hornish, Jr..Bobby Labonte will pliot the 19 Daytona Prototype. 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and Daytona 500 champion Jimmie Johnson will drive the #91 Riley-Matthews Motorsports Pontiac, with sponsorship from Johnson's NASCAR sponsor Lowe's.
It is expected Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Petty will also participate in the event.
Hornish and Montoya will both reunite with car owners from past endeavours. Hornish drove for Shank in the Champ Car Atlantic Series, while Montoya, fresh from rejoining Chip Ganassi Racing for NASCAR efforts, will drive a Ganassi Target Lexus Riley, likely with the Ganassi IRL team drivers.
Daytona GTs
The Grand Turismo class cars at Daytona are closer to the road versions, similar to the GT3 class elsewhere. For example, not the usual RS or RSR racing versions of the Porsche 996 are used, but the more standard Cup version. Recent Daytona entries were also BMW M3, Corvette, Mazda RX-8 and Pontiac GTO.R. A lone Ferrari 360 also added some red color to the 2006 race.
In an effort for teams to save money, GT rules have now changed to permit spaceframe cars clad in lookalike body panels to compete in GT (the new Mazda for example, and some forthcoming Infiniti G35s). These rules are somewhat similar to the old GTO specification, but with rather more restrictions.
(The intent of spaceframe-clad cars is to allow teams to save money -- especially after crashes, where teams can rebuild the cars for the next race at a much lower cost, or even redevelop cars, instead of having to junk an entire car after a crash or at the end of a year.)
2006 race
In the 2006 event, teams which are traditionally linked to Porsche made an effort to "reconquer" Daytona, like the Brumos Team which has fielded Porsches traditionally numbered as #58 and #59 since the 1970s. Porsche factory drivers were also scattered around the teams running Porsche engines in their DPs, and it was German Lucas Luhr who set the pole position time with the #23 Porsche-Crawford of Alex Job. In the race, the car that was also driven by Mike Rockenfeller (D) and Patrick Long (USA) led for some time, but lost time during a repair of a driveshaft, and finished only 3rd ahead of the #58 Red Bull Brumos Porsche-Fabcar with fellow Porsche Junior Sascha Maassen (D). Two Lexus-Rileys finished 1-2, with Target Chip Ganassi's all-star line-up of Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Casey Mears taking the overall win.
The GT class saw, as usual, virtually dozens of Porsches, and their faster drivers like Wolf Henzler were allegedly told not to be too fast in Qualifying in order to avoid being punished by extra handicap weight. The Pontiac GTO.R of experienced team TRG not only set the GT pole, but also lead much of the early part of the race, battling with the best 911s of the new 997 series, finishing 10th overall ahead of 21 Prototypes. The Porsche of TPC Racing did 3 laps more and took the GT win plus ninth overall, though. The second best non-Porsche 997 GT was the other TRG GTO.R at 26th overall, 13th in GT.
Statistics
Frequent winning cars (engines) were Porsche with 20 victories scored by various models, even the road based 911, 935 and 996. All other major car making brands had
- five wins: Ferrari '63, '64, '67, '72, '98, Ford '62, '65, '66, '97, '99
- two wins: Chevrolet '69, '01, Jaguar '88, '90, Nissan '92, '94, Pontiac '04, '05
- one win: BMW '75, Toyota '93, Oldsmobile '93, Dodge Viper '00, Lexus '06
Overall Winners of pre-24h races
| Year | Distance | Pilots | Car |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | 3 hours | Dan Gurney | Lotus 19-Ford |
| 1963 | 3 hours | Pedro Rodriguez | Ferrari 250 GTO |
| 1964 | 2000 km | Pedro Rodriguez/Phil Hill | Ferrari 250 GTO |
| 1965 | 2000 km | Ken Miles/Lloyd Ruby | Ford GT40 |
