Over forty drivers who raced in the FIA WEC in 2013, or who have already been announced for the 2014 season, will be on the grid for the first big combined Prototype and GT endurance race of the new season. The Rolex 24 at Daytona, the opening round of the new Tudor United Sportscar Championship, will take place in Florida this weekend (25/26 January) and will feature four classes – Prototype (P), Prototype Challenge (PC), GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD).
In the Prototype class reigning LMP2 World Champion Oak Racing is fielding a Morgan-Nissan with Olivier Pla and Roman Rusinov (G Drive) forming part of the driver line up. Alex Brundle (Oak Racing) will be joining the Muscle Milk Pickett Racing team and John Martin (G Drive) and Fabien Giroix (Delta-ADR) will be racing for Action Express Racing.
Newly announced Porsche LMP1 driver, and ELMS race winner, Brendon Hartley will be racing a Starworks Motorsport Riley DP in the Daytona 24.
In the Prototype Challenge class LMGTE World Champions 8Star Motorsports will be fielding an ORECA FLM09 with Enzo Potolicchio and Tom Kimber-Smith forming two thirds of the driver line up. Pierre Kaffer (Pecom Racing) joins the Starworks Motorsport team in the nr8 ORECA and David Heinemeier-Hansson (Oak Racing) will race the nr09 RSR Racing FLM09.
2013 FIA World Endurance LMGTE Driver Champion Gianmaria Bruni will be joined by Giancarlo Fisichella and Matteo Malucelli in the nr62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia that will be entered into the GT Le Mans Class.
Bruni and Fisichella will face their main rivals in the 2013 championship as Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke will race a Vantage V8 for Aston Martin Racing. The pair will be joined by Pedro Lamy, Richie Stanaway and Paul Dalla Lana, who all raced for Aston Martin last season. Former AMR drivers Rob Bell will also be present in the nr93 SRT Viper.
FIA WEC Porsche drivers are also well represented on the 24 Hours of Daytona grid, with Nick Tandy, Richard Lietz and Patrick Pilet racing the nr911 Porsche 911 RSR for Porsche North America, while Jörg Bergmeister will join the nr912 Porsche.
Krohn Racing is also joining the GT LM ranks at Daytona with the team’s Ferrari 458 Italia, team owner Tracy Krohn being joined by Nic Jönsson, Andrea Bertolini and Peter Dumbreck.
More FIA WEC regulars will compete in the GT Daytona class. Marc Lieb is joining Patrick Dempsey in the nr27 Dempsey Racing Porsche while Nicki Thiim swaps Aston Martin power for Porsche this year, joining the driver line up in the nr30 NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT America for the coming weekend.
Emmanuel Collard (AF Corse) will join the nr33 Riley Motorsports SRT Viper, while James Walker (Delta-ADR) will race the nr46 Fall-Line Motorsports Audi R8 LMS alongside Audi Sport driver Oliver Jarvis.
Gianluca Roda, Paolo Ruberti (Proton Competition) and Davide Rigon (8 Star) will join the Spirit of Race Ferrari team in Florida and Matt Griffin, Marco Cioci, Michele Rugolo and Jack Gerber (all AF Corse) will also join the Spirit of Race team in the second F458 Italia.
Toni Vilander (AF Corse) will race the nr63 Scuderia Corsa F458, while Maurizio Mediani (Krohn Racing) will compete in ELMS GTC Team Champions SMP Racing’s Ferrari. Porsche factory driver Timo Bernhard will compete in the Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911, while Finland’s Markus Palttala will compete in the sole BMW Z4 in the race for Turner Motorsport.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona is due to start at 14:10 (EST) on Saturday 25 January with ACO President Pierre Fillon being granted the honour of waving the starting flag. More information on the event can be found HERE
