First of all, it should be noted that in 2022 and 2023, there were new and updated GT3 cars that did come into the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. It just so happens, however, that like it was for the GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) cars, last year in 2023, this year... boom! Here come the GT3 cars for the GT Daytona Pro and GT Daytona classes. We have seen the BMW M4 GT3, the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, and the Ferrari 296 GT3. Now, we will see even more coming down the road. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 has another five years in homologation. The old BMW M6 GT3 model is completely out of homologation by now. Ferrari still has the 488 GT3, but those will be less and less prevalent at least stateside in IMSA. The Lexus RC F GT3 is the oldest GT3 car, having first been homologated in 2017 and it will last all the way until 2029.
Same is true with the Acura NSX GT3 having been introduced in 2017 and will end up being outdated in 2028. The Nissan GT-R GT3 is still homologated until 2029 but that car is less and less prevalent than it used to be, especially since Nissan swept the Intercontinental GT Challenge at the Bathurst 12 Hours way back in 2015 if I am right. Ditto for the Bentley Continental GT3 and the first-generation Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. McLaren's homologation on the 720S GT3 is good until 2029. The Lamborghini and the BMW too, will be sticking around. The same is true, also, for the brand-new Ferrari 296 GT3 entering it's second year of competition, and for the brand-new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
The 997 edition Porsche 911 GT3R runs out of homologation and will no longer be eligible for any championship, at the end of this current calendar year in 2024. The other new car of course is the Ford Mustang GT3. Truth be told, we will see a dozen GT3 car brands out there on the track this Saturday and Sunday at the Rolex 24. I believe it will be a very close race in both GTD Pro and GTD. There are 13 GTD Pro cars featuring a sole BMW M4 GT3 from Paul Miller Racing from last year's defending GTD champions who move up into the Pro category.
This entry features a driver lineup of American drivers Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, and Neil Verhagen, teamed with South African BMW factory GT3 driver, Sheldon van der Linde. The two new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R's are now run entirely by Pratt & Miller Motorsports since in GT3 only customer cars are allowed. No factory involvement is permitted. These are fully customer run cars homologated to GT3 specifications. Therefore, when we get to GT Daytona regular, as you read on in this post, you will see more Corvette's. The #3 car which is the lead entry for Pratt & Miller Motorsports features Spaniards Antonio Garcia and Daniel Juncadella (Juncadella is an ex-Mercedes-AMG factory GT3 driver), alongside British racer Alexander Sims, returning to GT3 after a year in prototype racing in GTP with Action Express Racing and Cadillac, in 2023.
The sister #4 Corvette is set to be shared by American Tommy Milner who returns to partner with Dutchman Nicky Catsburg. They will be joined by a fellow Cadillac GTP and Hypercar driver from a year ago, New Zealander, Earl Bamber. Pfaff Motorsports, the Canadian team, which was a longtime stalwart campaigner for Porsche, have now switched their allegiance to McLaren, the fabled British sports car maker who have won Le Mans overall, and have had myriad success in both Formula 1, and in the legendary Can Am series of the late 1960s under the auspices of their late, great founder, Bruce McLaren. Pfaff Motorsports have signed on Swiss GT3 veteran Marvin Kirchhofer (who has had success with McLaren in SRO GT World Challenge Europe), former IndyCar star turned broadcaster, and now back to being racing driver, James Hinchcliffe, from Canada, their American IndyCar ace Alexander Rossi (2016 Indianapolis 500 champion), and British prototype and GT standout racer, Oliver Jarvis.
There is a third McLaren, in GT Daytona regular, we shall touch on when we get there. Lexus returns with a two-car team for their RC F GT3 program which has been online since 2017 with the Vasser Sullivan team. Their GTD Pro lineup is centered around the #14 car to be driven by Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, American IndyCar and IMSA standout Kyle Kirkwood, and, from the Toyota FIA World Endurance Championship GR010 Hypercar program, England's Mike Conway. Lexus of course, being the American luxury car arm of Toyota. Lamborghini have representation in GTD Pro, from Iron Lynx.
This is the same group that will also be operating the new SC63 Hypercar/GTP operation, when that striking prototype comes online at round two of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship and the Michelin Endurance Cup, at the 12 Hours of Sebring, in March. For now, Iron Lynx are focused on two Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2's. Car #19 being shared by Franck Perera of France, South African Jordan Pepper, and longtime Lamborghini GT3 stalwarts, Italian's Andrea Caldarelli and Mirko Bortolotti. The sister #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini features French/Swiss former Formula 1 and IndyCar driver Romain Grosjean, and a trio of Italians, Claudio Schiavoni, and the Matteo and Matteo show, Matteo Cressoni, and Matteo Cairoli.
One of three new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo's entered in the race, with very new front-end styling, will be in GTD Pro, for The Heart of Racing, the same team that is looking to run and field the new Aston Martin Valkyrie V12 Le Mans Hypercar, both in IMSA and WEC, next year, in 2025. Car #23, the team's Pro ranked GT3 car features lead driver Ross Gunn from England, Spaniard Alex Riberas, and German racer Mario Farnbacher, who has previously raced for such brands as Porsche, Mercedes, and Acura I believe, or Porsche and Acura anyway.
A single Ferrari 296 GT3 is slated to enter GTD Pro. This is the venerable Risi Competizione team from Houston, Texas, under Ferrari dealer and team boss, Giuseppe Risi, a longtime campaigner in sports cars dating back to the waning days of the old V12 333SP open cockpit prototype chassis. Risi Competizione's team is spearheaded by Brazilian standout driver Daniel Serra, alongside Italian's Davide Rigon and Alessandro Pier Guidi (concurrently a member of Ferrari's Le Mans Hypercar team in the FIA WEC with the 499P, and one of their winning drivers from the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans in that very car, last year), and Pier Guidi's co-driver to the Le Mans triumph, James Calado, from England.
So, 2/3rds of the Le Mans lineup are back together, except this time in their GT3 challenger. Ironically, the 3-liter twin turbo V6 motor powering the 296 GT3 is the same engine that powers the 499P Hypercar as well, but I have doubts the 499P will be able to become eligible for IMSA competition even though Ferrari meets the criteria set forth by IMSA insofar as road going production cars. This leads us to the next new debuting car, the Ford Mustang GT3. The Mustang is reborn into GT sports car racing. This time, though, it is not the same as in the 1980s and early 1990s when Jack Roush won nine straight GTO and GTS-1 class titles in IMSA here at the Rolex 24 with a long list of legendary drivers aboard Mustang's and Mercury Capri's and Cougar's.
Multimatic from Canada and Ford Performance are spearheading the new Mustang program the same way they spearheaded the Ford GT effort in the GT Le Mans category and in LM GTE at Le Mans from 2016-2019. This Mustang is powered by the 5.4-liter Coyote V8 motor. The factory cars are numbered #64 and #65 just as they were, in the Jack Roush days. Britain's Harry Tincknell, ex Mazda DPi, Porsche GTE Pro WEC, and Proton Competition Porsche 963 Hypercar driver, is lead driver aboard the #64 car he shares with Mike Rockenfeller, former winner for Audi at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, former Porsche driver, and former driver at GM for both the Cadillac program and for last year's NASCAR Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Cup Series Gen 7 effort.
He has switched camps from GM to Ford. "Rocky" is sharing with the aforementioned Harry Tincknell, and with fellow German, Christopher Mies. Mies has been a stalwart of the now defunct Audi Sport Customer Racing team in GT3 with the now outmoded Audi R8 GT3 car and has moved to The Blue Oval for a fresh start in 2024. Their teammates in the #65 car are just as stellar. Former Ford GT program drivers Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller reunite at the wheel of the new Mustang GT3. In the last five years, Joey Hand has done a lot of development work for Ford on their NASCAR machinery and on this new Mustang project, equally. Frederic Vervisch is the new bloke on the team, but has a wealth of experience in his years in GT3 with the Audi team.
Closing out GTD Pro, we have the sole Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the class, being operated by SunEnergy 1 under company owner and team owner, Aussie solar energy magnate Kenny Habul, sharing with Mercedes-AMG factory drivers, placed in the capable hands of their customer GT3 operators, Jules Gounon of France, German Luca Stolz, and Germany's Maro Engel who has spent time in many places having raced in America, Europe, and Australia, for Mercedes-AMG in GT3 and many moons ago in the ill-fated Mercedes sedan effort in Australian Supercars.
Last in GTD Pro, but certainly not least, is "Rexy", the fan favorite Porsche 911 GT3R that is decorated as a massive tyrannosaurus Rex on wheels. AO Racing and team boss P.J. Hyett have, driving "Rexy", German Porsche GT3 standout Laurin Heinrich, Sebastian Priaulx of England, son of former touring car and GT driver Andy Priaulx, and Danish Porsche star Michael Christensen who is one of the lead drivers on their Porsche 963 team in the FIA WEC in Hypercar for Porsche Penske Motorsports, on loan to AO Racing here at the Rolex 24.
In the GT Daytona class, regular GT Daytona with Pro-Am drivers rated Bronze or Silver, we start with the second of the two Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3's. American drivers Frankie Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz sharing this car with Canadian former Porsche Carrera Cup North America racer turned Lexus factory driver, Parker Thompson, and with Japanese Toyota factory driver in Super GT in Japan, Ritomo Miyata. AWA, from Canada, moves from the LMP3 class (now only a part of VP Sports Car Challenge) int the GT3 ranks with two customer Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R's. This is also a team that has run with McLaren in prior years.
Their #13 Corvette is being shared by Canadian Orey Fidani, British racers Matt Bell and Alex Lynn (the latter, concurrently a member of the European arm of the Chip Ganassi Cadillac LMDh operation in the FIA WEC), and German racer, ex Porsche test driver, Lars Kern. The second AWA Corvette, car #17, is a blend of experienced GT3 drivers and drivers getting into GT racing for the first time, moving up from LMP3. Canada's Anthony Mantella is jumping into GT3 with the Corvette, and he will be joined by his Argentinian teammate Nico Varrone who has both GT and prototype experience, alongside GT veteran American driver Thomas Merrill, and Irishman Charlie Eastwood who has been racing GT's and LMP2 cars in North America and throughout the world.
There are three Ferrari 296 GT3's in GTD. One car from Italian team AF Corse, the Le Mans winners from 2023 with the Ferrari 499P Hypercar, to be driven by Swiss domiciled Brit Simon Mann, Francois Heriau of France (a man with LMP2 experience), Ferrari Hypercar racer Miguel Molina of Spain, and Japanese Ferrari GT standout from the World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Series, and SRO Europe, Kei Cozzolino. Triarsi Competizione are another team which have moved their operation from SRO America competition over to IMSA. Team chef d'equipe Onofrio Triarsi also is one of the drivers.
He is joined by teammate, and relative, Charlie Scardina in the car. The American drivers will be assisted by Italian's Riccardo Agostini, and another GT and perhaps future Hypercar standout for Ferrari, Alessio Rovera. Another Ferrari entered in the division is for Conquest Racing and team owner/team boss Eric Bachelart, the Belgian former IndyCar and sports car driver, moving his team to IMSA from SRO America GT3 competition. Star drivers in GTWC America for this team the last few years, American Manny Franco and Italian Alessandro Balzan spearhead the lineup. They are joined in the team's Ferrari 296 GT3 by Spaniard Albert Costa, ex Lamborghini driver, and by Monegasque GT standout Cedric Sbirrazuoli.
Heart of Racing have their second new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 entered in the GT Daytona class, with a four-driver team. Canadian's Roman De Angelis and Zacharie Robichon (ex-Porsche GT3 driver, turned Aston Martin factory ace), lead the lineup with team boss Ian James, the American domiciled Brit, and the experienced Danish Aston Martin man, Marco Sorensen also on the drivers' strength. Also racing for the Gayden, Warwickshire, England manufacturer, is Magnus Racing with car #44. The Magnus Racing Aston Msrtin is set to be driven by John Potter, Andy Lally, and Spencer Pumpelly, a venerable veteran American trio, joined by factory Aston Martin racer, the Dane, Nikki Thiim.
One more Mercedes GT Daytona team to speak of. This is the car of Lone Star Racing who have made sporadic IMSA starts, and I don't know if this is a full-time entry, or just a one off for the Rolex 24, but it is a strong lineup. The international team includes drivers from across many disciplines of sports car racing, both prototypes and GT's and from across the world insofar as nationalities. Turkish driver Salih Yoluc leads the team along with Rui Andrade from Angola, domiciled in Portugal, Australian Scott Andrews (who has seen success in both Michelin Pilot Challenge and WeatherTech Championship competition), and rounding out the quartet is British Mercedes GT3 ace, Adam Christodoulou who has been a longtime driver for the three-pointed star.
There is a single GTD Ford Mustang GT3 going along with the two GTD Pro factory cars. Proton Competition who are also running a customer Porsche 963 in GTP, have the entry and the car, the #55 being shared by a quartet of drivers who are racing together for the first time including Norwegian former Porsche GT racer, Dennis Olsen, American drivers Ryan Hardwick and Corey Lewis (Lewis moving over to another GT3 brand after campaigning with a few of them, over the years), and Italian GT driver Giammarco Levorato, who we first saw with Proton in the waning days of their Porsche GTE program in the European Le Mans Series in 2023.
Acura while ramping up their GTP effort, have a single car across only the GT Daytona class in 2024, the #66 Gradient Racing NSX GT3 Evo. Three women drivers will be a part of the team including American Sheena Monk, Brit Katherine Legge, and Venezuelan driver Tatiana Calderon, who has been successful in LMP2 and in open wheel racing, but I believe is making her GT3 debut. They will be joined in the car by veteran Scotsman Stevan McAleer who has raced a handful of GT3 and GT4 cars in different championships over the last few years. A strong lineup to be sure.
For Lamborghini, they have a busy schedule, running these GT3 cars in IMSA as well as across the world in other championships (the Huracan GT3 EVO2) as well as their upcoming GTP project with the SC63 that will debut soon at the 12 Hours of Sebring as they were not prepped in time for Daytona, and they will make their worldwide debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship opener in Qatar the first weekend in March. Their GT Daytona Pro and GT Daytona teams are stacked, nonetheless. We have discussed the Iron Lynx car. Their team also include the Iron Dames, with their trademark pink #83 car. Rahel Frey from Switzerland is joined by her regular co-drivers including Michelle Gatting from Denmark, Sarah Bovy from Belgium, and Doriane Pin from France.
Also in GTD, there are a few more Lamborghini teams worth noting. The #45 car for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport is a third car for their effort along with the two Acura GTP cars in their stable. The Lamborghini is set to be driven by Canadian Kyle Marcelli, alongside American drivers Graham Doyle and Ashton Harrison, as she joins the team switching from Acura over to Lamborghini, and Costa Rican driver Danny Formal, who has moved into the WeatherTech Championship after success in the single make Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America championship in the recent past.
Also racing with Lamborghini, the #78 Forte Racing car. The driver's strength includes a number of pilots who have raced with them before, led by Canadian Misha Goikhberg, who is joined by Italian Loris Spinelli (another exponent of Lamborghini Super Trofeo, and GT3 competition), Canadian former IndyCar racer Devlin DeFrancesco (maybe he is still current in IndyCar, but I cannot remember), and British GT3 racer, Sandy Mitchell, also a longtime Lamborghini driver in both North America and Europe.
Porsche has four individual 992 model 911 GT3R's for four different teams in the GT Daytona class with only AO Racing and "Rexy" in GTD Pro. Andretti Motorsports leads off the Porsche contingent with the #43 car, with Jarett Andretti (the son of the late, great John Andretti, a winner of the Rolex 24 overall, and a versatile driver of many types of cars from IndyCars, to sports cars, to stock cars, to even top fuel dragsters), as the lead driver. Jarett Andretti is joined by American former prototype driver Gabby Chaves, Canadian Porsche racer Scott Hargrove (who has had success in SRO and IMSA competition), and veteran Porsche GT driver, Austrian, Thomas Preining.
MDK Motorsports bring their #86 Porsche 911 GT3R (992) to Daytona under driver and team owner Mark Kvamme. Kvamme is not in the car but has a stellar quartet on the team. Chinese racer Kerong Li is the lead driver, sharing with Danish racer Anders Fjordbach who has also and will also race for this team in LMP2 in Asia and Europe, Dutch Porsche racer Larry ten Voorde, known well from the FIA World Endurance Championship, and Austrian Klaus Bachler, who has an ambitious endurance racing schedule even after the Rolex 24 is complete, racing in several endurance events across the world in different championships through the coming months even after Daytona.
Kellymoss with Riley wrote off one of their planned two cars they wished to race at the Rolex 24, the #91 car was crashed hard in the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test, and so, they only have a single Porsche to focus on this weekend in the race, the #92. 75-year-old gentleman racer David Brule leads the team, with fellow American sports car aces Alec Udell and Trent Hindman, and they will be joined by French Porsche racer Julien Andlauer in the car for the Rolex 24. Closing out the Porsche stable is the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R liveried especially for film footage shooting for a new movie starring and created by famed actor Brad Pitt about Formula 1, with Pitt's character also racing endurance sports cars to begin the film.
The "movie car" as it were, in real life, will be driven by stalwarts of Wright Motorsports' GT3 driver's strength including SRO America veteran turned IMSA driver Adam Adelson, his SRO America turned IMSA racing co-driver Elliott Skeer, Dutchman Jan Heylen, a longtime driver for the Wright Motorsports Porsche team in both IMSA and SRO, and Frenchman Fred Makowiecki, a Porsche factory 963 Hypercar driver in the FIA WEC but also a veteran of Porsche's GT3 customer programs. So, there's your rundown of the GT3 field. Stay tuned as I plan to do another one dedicated to both prototype classes, soon, for GTP and LMP2.
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