61-Car Field Set to Compete in January Test Leading into 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona
With just over a month until the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship commences, another spectacular grid is set to partake in the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test on January 17-19, leading into the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona race weekend, January 23-26.
Most of the 61 entered cars have their lineups set, while a handful are yet to be announced in the coming weeks prior to on-track activity. Per usual, the high volume of full-season IMSA stars and a bevy of Rolex 24 additions from other championships provide an excellent caliber of competition.
Here are some initial storylines to follow based on what we know from the entry list thus far, subject to changes.
The 61 cars are split among 12 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), 12 Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), 15 Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and 22 Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) entries.
Host of Changes Highlights GTP: Most of the announced lineups in GTP have some degree of change, whether it’s in the driver pairings, manufacturer or team name.
Defending race and series champions Porsche Penske Motorsport have swapped the pairings in its Nos. 6 and 7 Porsche 963s, as Nick Tandy moves to the No. 7 car alongside Felipe Nasr while Matt Campbell reunites with longtime teammate Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 car.
Cadillac welcomes Wayne Taylor Racing back to the fold with its two Cadillac V-Series.R cars and a powerful driver lineup for both cars that includes previous Rolex 24 winners Ricky and Jordan Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Kamui Kobayashi.
Similarly, Acura and Meyer Shank Racing reunite after a year apart with two Acura ARX-06s, and both team and manufacturer welcome previous Rolex 24 winner Renger van der Zande (formerly of Cadillac) and Nick Yelloly (formerly of BMW) to the fold. The MSR team has won the Rolex 24 in each of its past two appearances in the twice-around-the clock classic with the returning Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist both part of the winning lineup in 2023.
Scott Dixon, the six-time IndyCar champion and a four-time Rolex 24 winner, three-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou, rising IndyCar star Felix Rosenqvist and Honda factory driver Kakunoshin Ohta complete a fearsome lineup for the two-car program.
Cadillac Whelen has significant changes with Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber now spearheading its flagship No. 31 car alongside emerging talents Frederik Vesti and Felipe Drugovich.
BMW M Team RLL has an adjusted, mostly new lineup that includes ex-Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen, two-time Rolex 24 winner Rene Rast and six other sports car veterans – including past Rolex 24 class winner Philipp Eng – in their pair of BMW M V8 Hybrids.
Lamborghini is due to debut its SC63 prototype at Daytona after skipping this race last year, with Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and past Rolex 24 winners Mirko Bortolotti and Edoardo Mortara on board.
Customer Porsche 963 entries from JDC-Miller MotorSports and Proton Competition are yet to finalize their lineups.
Stacked LMP2 Grid: The dozen LMP2 class entries – all ORECA 07 cars – feature no shortage of talent, either.
Four-time IMSA champion Dane Cameron (AO Racing) and four-time IndyCar champion Sebastien Bourdais (Tower Motorsports) are listed to enter the category after previous stints in GTP. AO’s lineup also includes another young IndyCar driver in Christian Rasmussen, part of Era’s winning lineup last year. Felipe Massa, the former Formula 1 driver, is back with Riley.
Pratt Miller, long regarded for its GT program with Corvette Racing, adds an LMP2 entry that includes IndyCar drivers Callum Ilott and Pietro Fittipaldi. PR1 Mathiasen and Inter Europol are set for separate programs after uniting to win the 2024 title, while TDS Racing seeks to add a full-season crown to its Michelin Endurance Cup honors won last year.
Era Motorsport seeks to defend its Rolex 24 win with three new drivers alongside three-time Rolex 24 winner Ryan Dalziel. CrowdStrike Racing by APR returns as well with two-time Rolex 24 winner Colton Herta among its lineup, and the balance of the class – United Autosports USA and PECOM Racing – all could have winning potential at hand.
GTD PRO Features Record Grid: Ahead of its fourth season, GTD PRO will field its largest car count of 15 cars, surpassing the previous mark of 13 set on multiple occasions.
Defending class champions AO Racing are back, Laurin Heinrich now sharing the No. 77 “Rexy” Porsche 911 GT3 R with new full-season co-driver Klaus Bachler, while title rivals Heart of Racing Team are back with its No. 007 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo as the team waits to debut its Valkyrie GTP car until the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
The pairs of entries from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and Ford Multimatic Motorsports are back, and ahead of their second year with their new cars, they may be able to renew battles up front in class. Paul Miller Racing expands to two BMW M4 GT3 Evos, but PMR is yet to announce who’s driving them.
Pfaff Motorsports switches from McLaren to Lamborghini, and its Daytona lineup includes veteran driver and commentator James Hinchcliffe and past Rolex 24 winner Andrea Caldarelli.
Trackhouse by TF Sport enters an all-star Corvette Z06 GT3.R that includes Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin with past Rolex 24 winners Connor Zilisch and Ben Keating. The entry unites past Rolex 24 class winner Justin Marks and his Trackhouse Racing team with sports car specialists TF Sport, a Corvette Racing team in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The remaining cars are a single Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, single DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3, single Porsche 911 GT3 R from Proton Competition and two Mercedes-AMG GT3s from Bartone Bros. by GetSpeed and 75 Express. A number of past Rolex 24 winners are expected among those entries.
GTD Reveals 22 Cars: GTD boasts both the biggest car count at the 2025 Rolex 24 with 22 cars from nine manufacturers, and also the greatest number of TBDs among any class.
Defending race and season champions Winward Racing spearhead the list as one of three Mercedes-AMG GT3s, along with Korthoff Competition Motors and Lone Star Racing.
Ferrari is the most populous car in the category – no less than seven 296 GT3s are entered. Triarsi Competizione and AF Corse have two apiece, with one each from Conquest Racing, Cetilar Racing and Inception Racing.
Longtime entries from Heart of Racing Team and Magnus Racing join newcomers van der Steur Racing running Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos.
There are a pair of Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVOs (Wayne Taylor Racing, Forte Racing), a pair of Porsche 911 GT3 R cars (Iron Dames’ all-female lineup included and one car from Wright Motorsports) and a pair of Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs (AWA, DXDT Racing).
Lastly, there is a single Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 Evo and Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3, the latter team having switched from the Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 over the winter. Gradient’s Ford includes Joey Hand as its first named driver.
IMSA Stars Are Out: A run through the Rolex 24 entry list reveals more than 20 IMSA full-season champions, at least, on the grid. That number grows substantially with those who have won an IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup and/or past Sprint Cup title.
Six of the seven 2024 full-season champions – Felipe Nasr, Dane Cameron, Tom Dillmann, Laurin Heinrich, Russell Ward and Philip Ellis – appear set to defend their respective titles with all but Cameron doing so in the same car, class or program.
Among GTP entered drivers, Nasr, Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Jordan Taylor, Kamui Kobayashi, Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon and Renger van der Zande have overall Rolex 24 victories on their resumes. Several others entered have class victories but not overall triumphs, or vice versa where they’ve won overall but are now entered in different classes.
Qualifying Returns to Rolex 24 Race Weekend: After the last four years have featured Rolex 24 qualifying as part of the Roar Before the Rolex 24 weekend, the qualifying returns to Rolex 24 race week in 2025. That reverts IMSA’s traditional preseason test to entirely that, with seven total sessions covering three days. The last of those seven on Sunday, January 19, is a Bronze-only session for LMP2 and GTD entrants. Track activity for the Roar begins on Friday, January 17, with the first session at 11 a.m. ET.
