Official Entry List for the 2014 Rolex 24

When most people are asked about Daytona they immediately think of NASCAR and The Daytona 500.  If you were to ask me about Daytona, I go to the Rolex 24 at Daytona.  SportsCar racing is by far my favorite form of racing.  The race prepped road cars of the GT classes to the purpose built racing machines of the Prototype classes, the variety of racing is immense.   It’s more technical than the automotive relics of NASCAR but not as pompous as Formula 1.  2014 sees arguably the most anticipated Rolex 24 of all time.  It is the first race of the brand new Tudor United SportsCar Championship (TUSC).  The TUSC is the merger between the two main North American SportsCar series, The ALMS and Grand Am.  Combining the two series with 2 separate regulations was a tremendous undertaking.   IMSA (The TUSC’s Sanctioning body) has done a tremendous job getting the regulations in place in such a short period of time.

The TUSC will see 4 classes competing all season long.  The Prototype class (P) combines The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) cars from the ALMS and Grand-Am’s

Daytona Protypes (DP).  2 Very different Ptrototype cars but somehow IMSA has gotten the Balance of Performance (BoP) very close.  Considering the difference between the cars is no small accomplishment.  Further adjustments may still be made for the Prototypes before the drop of the Green Flag on January 25^th.

The Second Prototype Class is Prototype Challenge (PC) originally introduced in the ALMS and carried over to TUSC.  The class is exclusively Oreca FML09 chassis and Chevrolet V8 power.  The last 2 classes are for the production based GT cars.  GT Le Mans (GT LM) is made up of Le Mans Spec GT cars.   Factory efforts from SRT Viper, BMW, Porsche and the New Corvette C7.R highlight this class.  GT Daytona (GTD) is made up of FIA GT3 based machinery.  The GT3 cars have been modified slightly for the TUSC, smaller restrictors and aero adjustments such as a class wide spec rear wing.

Yesterday IMSA announced the official entry list for the race.  A whopping 67 cars make up the grid.  I will be posting a full race preview in a week or so, but for now here is The Official Entry  list for the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona.