The 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona was an International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)-sanctioned 24-hour automobile endurance race for prototype and grand touring sports cars held at the Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, from January 28 to 29, 2017. It was the first of twelve events in the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship, the 55th 24 Hours of Daytona, and the first in the four-round North American Endurance Cup.
João Barbosa started from the pole position for Mustang Sampling Racing by lapping quickest in qualifying and held the lead for most of the opening hour until teammate Dane Cameron of Whelen Engineering Racing passed him. Wayne Taylor Racing joined in, trading the lead with the Mustang Sampling Racing, VisitFlorida Racing, Extreme Speed Motorsports, and Whelen Engineering Racing teams. Ricky Taylor collided with Filipe Albuquerque with around seven minutes to go, spinning out the latter. Taylor subsequently built a large lead while Albuquerque began to track him down. On the final lap of the race, Albuquerque reduced Taylor's lead by four seconds but was unable to reach Taylor in time to win the race. Max Angelelli, Jeff Gordon, and Jordan Taylor joined Ricky Taylor after 659 laps to lead in the Prototype Drivers' and Teams' Championships. VisitFlorida Racing's Marc Goossens, René Rast and Renger van der Zande completed the podium one lap behind in third.
The Prototype Challenge (PC) category was won by the Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 vehicle, shared by Nicholas Boulle, James French, Kyle Masson, and Pato O'Ward after leading the category's final 514 laps. BAR1 Motorsport's No. 26 entry finished 22 laps behind in second place; third was the sister BAR1 car. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing won the Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) category with a Ford GT shared by Sébastien Bourdais, Joey Hand, and Dirk Müller by 2.988 seconds over a Porsche 911 RSR that defeated the third-place Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE by 0.091 seconds. The Alegra Motorsports team of Michael Christensen, Carlos de Quesada, Michael de Quesada, Jesse Lazare, and Daniel Morad won the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class in a Porsche 911 GT3 R by 0.293 seconds after Christensen overtook Montaplast by Land-Motorsport's Audi R8 LMS in the race's final hour. The Riley Motorsports – Team AMG-fielded Mercedes-AMG GT3 completed the class podium in third place.
Background Preview
NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., who built Daytona International Speedway in 1959, conceived of the 24 Hours of Daytona to attract European sports-car endurance racing to the United States and provide international exposure to the speedway. It is informally considered part of the Triple Crown of Endurance Racing, with the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed that the race was part of the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship schedule in August 2016. It was the fourth year in a row that the race was part of the series calendar and the 55th 24 Hours of Daytona. The race was the first of 2017's twelve scheduled IMSA automobile endurance races, and the first of four North American Endurance Cup (NAEC) events. It was held at the 12-turn, Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, from January 28 to 29.
Entry list Fifty-five cars were entered in the race, and most entries were in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class. Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM), the 2016 winners, returned to defend its title. Daytona marked the debut of IMSA's Daytona Prototype International (DPi) cars, replacing the Daytona Prototype (DP), competing with the revised Automobile Club de l'Ouest-regulated Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) cars in the Prototype category. Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR), Mustang Sampling Racing and Whelen Engineering Racing (WER) each fielded one Cadillac DPi-V.R car, and ESM entered two Nissan Onroak DPi vehicles. Mazda Motorsports sent two Mazda RT24-P chassis, and VisitFlorida Racing entered one Riley Mk. 30 LMP2-specification car. Oreca was represented by three 07-Gibson cars, with one each fielded by JDC-Miller Motorsports (moving from the Prototype Challenge (PC) class), DragonSpeed and Daytona first-timer Rebellion Racing. The PC category was composed of five Oreca FLM09s: two each from BAR1 Motorsports and Starworks Motorsport and one from Performance Tech Motorsports.
GT Le Mans (GTLM) consisted of 11 vehicles from five brands. Porsche's GT Team debuted the mid-engine 911 RSR, and Ford Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) and its UK division each fielded two Ford GT. Team RLL entered two BMW M6 GTLMs, and Corvette Racing fielded two C7.Rs. Ferrari was represented by a Ferrari 488 GTE, fielded by Risi Competizione. GTD had 27 entrants from nine GT3 manufacturers. Lamborghini was the most-numerous brand in GTD, with eight Huracáns: two from GRT Grasser Racing Team, and one each from Change Racing, DAC Motorsports, Dream Racing Competition, Ebimotors, Konrad Motorsport and Paul Miller Racing. Porsche was represented by five 911 GT3 Rs, with one each from Alegra Motorsports, CORE Autosport, Manthey Racing, Park Place Motorsports and The Racer's Group. A mix of teams and brands made up the rest of the GTD field. They included three Audi R8 LMS (one each from Alex Job Racing, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport and Stevenson Motorsports) and three Mercedes-AMG GT3s from Riley Motorsports – Team AMG, Riley Motorsports – WeatherTech Racing and SunEnergy1 Racing. Michael Shank Racing joined Acura for two debuting Acura NSX GT3, and 3GT Racing gave two Lexus RC F GT3s their competition debut at Daytona. Scuderia Corsa and Spirit of Race entered one Ferrari 488 GT3 apiece. There was one Vantage GT3 from Aston Martin Racing and one BMW M6 GT3 from Turner Motorsport.
Each car was driven by two full-time entrants, along with one endurance racer and one or two extra competitors. The additional participants were recruited from a number of racing categories, including the FIA World Endurance Championship (such as Neel Jani for Rebellion Racing and Brendon Hartley for ESM), the Supercars Championship (such as Shane van Gisbergen for Riley Motorsports – WeatherTech Racing), the IndyCar Series (such as Scott Dixon for CGR and James Hinchcliffe for Mazda Motorsports), the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (such as Robert Wickens for Starworks Motorsport), and Super GT (such as Andrea Caldarelli for Paul Miller Racing). Some drivers competed at Daytona on a one-off basis, such as four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon and Formula E racer Sam Bird. Seb Morris joined WER after winning the Sunoco Whelen Challenge for British GT Championship, Radical Team Challenge and Radical European Masters entrants.
Pre-test balance of performance The week before the circuit's three-day test session, IMSA altered the balance of performance in all four categories to achieve parity. All Prototype entries had of baseline weight and fuel-cell capacity. The PC category had no performance changes. The Ford GT received a boost-ratio-curve increase to ease performance, the Aston Martin Vantage had of minimum weight added for heavier handling, and the Lamborghini Huracán's power was reduced by a air-restrictor reduction to two openings. All DPi cars had their performance increased; the Mazda RT24-P and Nissan Onroak DPis received turbocharger-boost increases across all RPM ranges, and the Cadillac DPi-V.R. had its air restrictor increased by . The Ligier JS P217, Oreca 07 or Riley Mk. 30 LMP2 machines had no performance changes. The GTLM-category Porsche 911 RSR had its minimum rear-wing angle set at zero degrees. The GTD and PC classes had no performance alterations.
Testing The 55 entries participated in a seven-session, three-day test at Daytona from January 6 to 8 as race preparation. Some drivers, including Corey Lewis, Matt McMurry, Gustavo Menezes and Alessandro Pier Guidi, missed the test because they were racing in the Asian Le Mans Series's 4 Hours of Thailand. The first day saw warm temperatures and low winds. Neel Jani set the first session's best lap (1:39.164) in Rebellion's No. 13 Oreca car, improving by 0.004 seconds in the second session. Mathias Beche was second in JDC-Miller's No. 85 entry. The fastest DPi car was WTR's No. 10 Ricky Taylor Cadillac in third, followed by José Gutiérrez's PR1/Mathiasen No. 52 Ligier and Nicolas Lapierre's No. 81 DragonSpeed Oreca in fourth and fifth. Johnny Mowlem's No. 26 BAR1 Oreca car led PC with a 1:42.701 lap. A crash by Clark Toppe in Performance Tech's No. 38 car against the Bus Stop chicane barrier heavily damaged the car after an hour, but Toppe was uninjured. Jan Magnussen led the morning session in GTLM with a 1:44.760 lap in Corvette's No. 3 C7.R, and continued to lead in the afternoon session over Dirk Müller's and Andy Priaulx's Nos. 66 and 67 Fords. Andrew Davis' No. 57 Stevenson Audi led GTD.
Jani again set the fastest overall lap (1:38.944) on the second day; Tristan Nunez's No. 55 Mazda was second, Ben Hanley's DragonSpeed car was third, and JDC-Miller's Oreca car was fourth. WTR's Cadillac, driven by Jordan Taylor, finished fifth. Pato O'Ward led in PC at 1:43.119 driving Performance Tech's car. Dixon's No. 67 Ford led in GTLM with a 1:44.558 lap during the afternoon session, two-tenths of a second faster than Magnunssen's second-placed No. 3 Corvette. A serious fire, caused by a fuel line (allowing fuel to escape and ignite on the warm engine compartment), in Corvette's No. 4 C7.R driven by Marcel Fässler into NASCAR turn two caused him to stop in the infield with front left-corner damage. Fässler, evaluated and released from the infield medical center, was unhurt. Corvette Racing withdrew from the test to investigate the fire's cause. Christopher Mies' No. 29 Land Audi lapped at 1:47.723 to lead GTD. A stop on the track by João Barbosa's No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac and a collision between Patrick Pilet's No. 911 Porsche and the No. 98 Aston Martin, which damaged Pilet's left front suspension, disrupted the test.
The third and final day saw DragonSpeed's Hanley lap fastest overall (1:38.343), 0.020 seconds faster than Jonathan Bomarito's second-place No. 55 Mazda. Sébastien Buemi placed the Rebellion Oreca third; the PR1/Matheisen car finished fourth, and Barbosa's Mustang Sampling Cadillac was the fastest DPi entry in fifth place. Performance Tech continued to lead in PC after a lap by James French. GTLM was led by Ryan Briscoe's No. 67 Ford with a 1:44.380 lap, two-tenths of a second faster than Tony Kanaan's second-place sister No. 69 car. Sven Müller lapped fastest in GTD (1:46.810) in Manthey's No. 59 Porsche in the morning session, a tenth of a second quicker than Jeroen Bleekemolen's second-place No. 33 Riley Mercedes-AMG.
Post-test balance of performance After testing, IMSA again adjusted the balance of performance in all categories. The Mazda RT24-P and Nissan Onroak DPis had their fuel tanks raised, and the Mazda and Riley Mk. 30s received minimum main-plane angles for two approved rear-wing choices. Cadillac's DPi-V.R.s rear wing assembly was moved back two degrees. The PC cars had decreased fuel capacity and shorter hose restrictors. All five GTLM cars had minimum rear-wing angles altered and refueling flow restrictors installed. All GTD-class machinery received weight adjustments. The Audi R8 LMS, Lamborghini Huracán, Porsche 911 R and Mercedes-AMGs had their performance decreased with air-restrictor reductions, and the fuel capacities of the Lamborghini, Lexus and Mercedes-AMG cars were reduced. All nine GTD cars had refueling flow restrictors installed.
Practice and qualifying Four practice sessions preceded the race's start on Saturday: three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third, that evening, lasted 90 minutes; the fourth, on Friday morning, lasted an hour.