By Luke James
Across respective sports, the arrival of January heralds a ramping up of competition. In Football we see the FA Cup expand, and dramatic fixtures like Crystal Palace’s shock loss to Macclesfield dominate the back pages of papers. Remaining space is usually filled by 6
Nations predictions, Champions and Challenge Cup matches, the NFL, and the occasional Formula One story.
However, even as a devout rugby fan, I must admit that the best sporting spectacle of the month is the 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24, held in Florida. Endurance Racing has its own triple crown – the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Daytona. The sport itself is often overshadowed by larger forms of racing such as Formula One, Moto GP, or the World Rally Championship, but to me, Endurance is the greatest.
Sixty cars, 13 manufacturers, and 234 drivers will take to the 3.56-mile track at the same time, spread across four categories: GTD (GT Daytona), GTD Pro (GT Daytona Pro), LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype), and GTP (Grand Touring Prototype).
Where the GTD cars across both classes are homologated versions of road cars, such as the Aston Martin Vantage or the Ferrari 296, and multiple engine types, the LMP2 cars are a spec series made from French company Oreca’s LMP2 07 prototype, which has a growling V8. But the GTP cars are the fastest, and loudest, and in my opinion, best. Acura, Porsche, BMW, Cadillac, and Aston Martin line this field,
with screaming prototypes that roar into the night as darkness falls over the track.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie, not hampered by European muffler regulations, will thunder and deafen spectators with a symphony of a firestorm as it rages through the field. Not all 60 cars are equal, the GT style cars (GTD and GTD Pro) will be the slowest by far, often lapped by the LMP2s and the GTD.
Each class will have its own podium as well as one for the overall top 3. Famous victors include two-time winner Ken Miles in the Ford GT40, Martin Brundle in the Silk Cut Jaguar XJR, and double F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso in the Cadillac Dpi-V.R.
Daytona isn’t just about one driver; each team has multiple in order to deal with fatigue. Endurance races are tough, competitors are pushed to the absolute limit for hours trying to wrangle metal beasts around the circuit. Only one team has two drivers, the Aston Martin
GTD entry, while all others have either three or four.
During pitstops after certain lengths of racing time have elapsed, as decided by the pit crew, drivers are quite literally hauled out of the car and another leaps in to continue as quickly as possible while the tyres are changed and fuel is added. Pit stops, even without a driver change, are only allowed a maximum of four crew members “over the wall”, i.e. taking part in the pit stop. This means that the stop can be as long as 40 seconds for the basics of tyre changes and refuelling, a complete opposite to what you see in Formula One.
The racing is also dramatic, close, and heightened as some small contact is allowed to be made between cars while they race. Prototypes will be racing against each other while lapping the much slower GTD cars, which can lead to close calls and some contact, adding excitement and scare to situations not seen in any other form of racing.
Drivers are also less limited by speech restrictions, leading to incidents such as the “finger” being shown by a Corvette driver towards a particularly aggressive BMW M4 last year.
Daytona isn’t just a race. It’s a part of motorsport history not only in the United States but worldwide. Winners are well revered and legends have been etched into its famous past. The full grid push themselves to the limit, and upsets are bound to happen. Mechanical failures can end your race within an hour of the start, or even 15 minutes from the end. Day and night, sunset and sunrise, rain and dry can all be seen over the track throughout the race, and adaptability despite the tiredness will be key to victory. If I could only watch one sporting event this month, I know that it would have to be Daytona.
Images
(1) The race during the 2022 24 Hours of Daytona — United Autosports, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_race_during_the_2022
_24_Hours_of_Daytona.jpg
(2) Tertre Rouge at night, 2008 — florenzkalvarec, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terte_Rouge_at_night_2008
.jpg
(3) Le Mans circuit at night — various authors, Creative Commons licences, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaSearch?search=le+mans+circuit&type=image