The 2024 24 Hours of Daytona (formally known as the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona) was an endurance sports car race sanctioned by International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida on January 27–28, 2024. The event was the 62nd running of the 24 Hours of Daytona since its inception in 1962, and the first of 11 races across multiple classes in the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship, as well as the first of five rounds in the 2024 Michelin Endurance Cup. The 2024 race was shortened due to an officiating error causing the race to end 1 minute 35.277 seconds short of the scheduled 24 hours.

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 John Doonan confirmed the race was a part of the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2023. It was the eleventh consecutive year it will be a part of the IMSA SCC, and the 62nd 24 Hours of Daytona. The 24 Hours of Daytona was the first of eleven scheduled sports car endurance races by IMSA, and the first of five races on the Michelin Endurance Cup (MEC). The race took place at the 12-turn Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida from January 27 to 28.

Filming The Rolex 24 was used as a filming set for F1. Brad Pitt's run around Daytona in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) car was inserted into racing scenes filmed from the actual race. The car carried the livery of the fictional "Chip Hart Racing" team and was shared with ‘Cale Kelso’ and former Porsche factory driver Patrick Long.

Entry list Entrant Car Driver 1 Driver 2 Driver 3 Driver 4 GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) (10 entries) 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon Renger van der Zande Álex Palou 5 Proton Competition Mustang Sampling Porsche 963 Gianmaria Bruni Romain Dumas Neel Jani Alessio Picariello 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Kévin Estre Mathieu Jaminet Nick Tandy Laurens Vanthoor 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Dane Cameron Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr Josef Newgarden 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 Filipe Albuquerque Marcus Ericsson Brendon Hartley Ricky Taylor 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus Jesse Krohn Dries Vanthoor 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 Connor De Phillippi Maxime Martin René Rast Nick Yelloly 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Jack Aitken Tom Blomqvist Pipo Derani 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 Jenson Button Louis Delétraz Colton Herta Jordan Taylor 85 JDC–Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 Phil Hanson Tijmen van der Helm Ben Keating Richard WestbrookLMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2) (13 entries) 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca 07-Gibson Colin Braun Malthe Jakobsen George Kurtz Toby Sowery 2 United Autosports USA Oreca 07-Gibson Ben Hanley Ben Keating Pato O'Ward Nico Pino 8 Tower Motorsports Oreca 07-Gibson Michael Dinan John Farano Ferdinand Habsburg Scott McLaughlin 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07-Gibson Mikkel Jensen Hunter McElrea Charles Milesi Steven Thomas 18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07-Gibson Ryan Dalziel Dwight Merriman Christian Rasmussen Connor Zilisch 20 MDK by High Class Racing Oreca 07-Gibson Dennis Andersen Laurents Hörr Scott Huffaker Seth Lucas 22 United Autosports USA Oreca 07-Gibson Paul di Resta Bijoy Garg Dan Goldburg Felix Rosenqvist 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P217-Gibson João Barbosa Jonny Edgar Nolan Siegel Lance Willsey 52 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07-Gibson Nick Boulle Tom Dillmann Pietro Fittipaldi Jakub Śmiechowski 74 Riley Oreca 07-Gibson Josh Burdon Felipe Fraga Felipe Massa Gar Robinson 81 DragonSpeed Oreca 07-Gibson James Allen Sebastián Álvarez Eric Lux Kyffin Simpson 88 Richard Mille AF Corse Oreca 07-Gibson Nicklas Nielsen Luis Pérez Companc Matthieu Vaxivière Lilou Wadoux 99 AO Racing Oreca 07-Gibson Matthew Brabham Paul-Loup Chatin P. J. Hyett Alex Quinn GTD Pro (GT Daytona Pro) (13 entries) 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 Sheldon van der Linde Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Neil Verhagen 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R Antonio García Daniel Juncadella Alexander Sims 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R Earl Bamber Nicky Catsburg Tommy Milner 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo James Hinchcliffe Oliver Jarvis Marvin Kirchhöfer Alexander Rossi 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 Ben Barnicoat Mike Conway Jack Hawksworth Kyle Kirkwood 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 Mirko Bortolotti Andrea Caldarelli Jordan Pepper Franck Perera 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo Mario Farnbacher Ross Gunn Alex Riberas 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 Matteo Cairoli Matteo Cressoni Romain Grosjean Claudio Schiavoni 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi Davide Rigon Daniel Serra 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 Christopher Mies Mike Rockenfeller Harry Tincknell 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 Joey Hand Dirk Müller Frédéric Vervisch 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo Maro Engel Jules Gounon Kenny Habul Luca Stolz 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Michael Christensen Laurin Heinrich Sebastian Priaulx GTD (GT Daytona) (23 entries) 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Riccardo Agostini Alessio Rovera Charlie Scardina Onofrio Triarsi 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 Ritomo Miyata Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Parker Thompson 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R Matt Bell Orey Fidani Lars Kern Alex Lynn 17 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R Charlie Eastwood Anthony Mantella Thomas Merrill Nicolás Varrone 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Kei Cozzolino François Heriau Simon Mann Miguel Molina 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo Roman De Angelis Ian James Zacharie Robichon Marco Sørensen 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo Maximilian Götz Mikaël Grenier Kenton Koch Mike Skeen 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Alessandro Balzan Albert Costa Manny Franco Cédric Sbirrazzuoli 43 Andretti Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Scott Hargrove Thomas Preining 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo Andy Lally John Potter Spencer Pumpelly Nicki Thiim 45 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 Graham Doyle Danny Formal Ashton Harrison Kyle Marcelli 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Eddie Cheever III Antonio Fuoco Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 Ryan Hardwick Giammarco Levorato Corey Lewis Dennis Olsen 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo Indy Dontje Philip Ellis Daniel Morad Russell Ward 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 Tatiana Calderón Katherine Legge Stevan McAleer Sheena Monk 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo Tom Gamble Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Frederik Schandorff 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 Devlin DeFrancesco Misha Goikhberg Sandy Mitchell Loris Spinelli 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo Rui Andrade Scott Andrews Adam Christodoulou Salih Yoluç 83 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 Sarah Bovy Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Doriane Pin 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Klaus Bachler Anders Fjordbach Kerong Li Larry ten Voorde 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Julien Andlauer David Brule Trent Hindman Alec Udell 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 Robby Foley Patrick Gallagher Jens Klingmann Jake Walker 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Adam Adelson Jan Heylen Frédéric Makowiecki Elliott Skeer Source:

Testing

The Roar Before the 24 Tests occurred from January 19 to 21, 2024, with all cars participating in the test. The first session on Friday morning saw Nick Tandy top the lap times in the No. 6 Penske 963 with a time of 1:35.617, 0.035 seconds faster than Augusto Farfus' No. 24 BMW. Paul di Resta's No. 22 United Autosports car topped LMP2 with a 1-minute, 39.916 seconds lap. Matteo Cressoni was fastest in GTD Pro while Katherine Legge set the fastest time amongst all GTD cars. The second session on Friday afternoon saw Cadillac move atop when Pipo Derani, driving the No. 31 car for Action Express Racing, turned in a 1:35.217 lap in the closing minutes. De Phillippi's No. 25 BMW was second and Laurens Vanthoor was third for Porsche Penske Motorsport. Christian Rasmussen bettered LMP2's fastest lap with a time of 1:39.674, leading Era Motorsport's No. 18 entry ahead of Nolan Siegel's No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier and Nicklas Nielsen's No. 88 AF Corse car. Ford led GTD Pro with Christopher Mies' lap of 1 minute 46.494 seconds, followed by James Calado's No. 62 Ferrari and Alexander Sims' No. 3 Corvette. Jan Heylen's No. 120 Porsche led GTD from Manny Franco's Conquest Racing Ferrari.

Hanson set the fastest overall lap (1:35.216) on the second day; Neel Jani's Proton Competition car was second and Connor De Phillippi's No. 25 BMW was third. Scott Huffaker led in LMP2, at 1:38.270 driving HCR's car. Milner's No. 4 Corvette led in GTD Pro with a 1:45.844 lap during the morning session while Eddie Cheever III's No. 47 Ferrari set the fastest time amongst all GTD cars.

The third and final day of testing featured one session where only the GTP cars participated. Bourdais' No. 01 CGR Cadillac set the overall fastest time with a 1-minute, 33.236 seconds lap. The second-fastest car was the No. 7 Penske Porsche of Nasr and Derani putting the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac in third position. Connor De Phillippi set the fourth-fastest lap in BMW's No. 25 car, and Louis Delétraz's No. 40 Acura was fifth.

Practice There were four practice sessions scheduled preceding the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first 90-minute session was on Thursday morning while the second session on Thursday afternoon ran for 105 minutes. The third scheduled for later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1 Dixon's No. 01 Cadillac set the fastest lap of the first practice session at 1 minute, 36.012 seconds, 0.127 seconds faster than De Phillippi's No. 25 BMW. Kévin Estre put the No. 6 Penske Porsche in third overall. Dries Vanthoor was fourth in BMW's No. 24 car and Cameron's No. 7 Porsche was fifth. Toby Sowery led LMP2 with a 1:39.407 lap in CrowdStrike's No. 04 car, and Hanley's No. 2 United Autosports Oreca was second. In GTD Pro, the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Hawskworth led with a lap of 1 minute, 46.783 seconds. Marvin Kirchhöfer put the No. 9 Pfaff McLaren second. Calado in the No. 62 Risi Ferrari was third. Katherine Legge's No. 66 Gradient car set the fastest time amongst all GTD cars. Robby Foley set the second-fastest lap in class in Turner Motorsport's No. 96 entry. ClassTeamDriverTime1GTP01 Cadillac Racing Scott Dixon1:36.012—2GTP25 BMW M Team RLL Connor De Phillippi1:36.139 +0.1273GTP6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Kévin Estre1:36.281 +0.269Sources:

Practice 2