50 cars ready for Daytona test

50 cars will share the Daytona International Speedway in the upcoming weekend, when the ROAR test will be run on the legendary race track in Florida.

It will be 56th running of the Daytona 24 Hours, with this mandatory test being run at warm up to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season starting at the end of January.

20 of the cars will run in the Prototype category, while 9 cars are starting the GTLM category and a massive 21 starts in the GTD category.

The Prototype category is a good mix of the Global LMP2 cars, which we know from Le Mans, and the DPi cars, that are unique to the IMSA series – but still with a basis in the LMP2 cars.

There will be 4 Cadillac cars on the track, with the defending Daytona and IMSA Champions, Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing among those. The cars are based on the Dallara chassis, but an adapted Cadillac design.

Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac #10
Photo: Vickie Miller

Nissan is represented by the Tequila Patron Extreme Speed Motorsport team with two cars. The Nissan DPi car is developed together with Ligier.

Mazda returns to the series as a works team in the shape of Mazda Team Joest, who has optimized the Multimatic/Riley MK30 car. If they have been able to remove all the problems of the car, that plagued the SpeedSource team formerly running the Mazda programme, they can very well be front runners in the Championship.

New boys in town is the Acura, run by Penske. The Acura car has roots to ORECA, but is significantly different with a much changed front, with something that looks like a front wing without actually being one.

The remaining cars are all original LMP2 cars, that we know so well from the FIA WEC and the ELMS championships.

There are 5 constructors represented in the GTLM category with Corvette, BMW, Porsche and Ford all running two cars each, while Risi Competizione is the lone representative for Ferrari.

Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 #96
Photo: BMW Motorsport

The GTD category will be pure fireworks with Lamborghini, Lexus, Audi, Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche, Acura and BMW all on the entry list. Ferrari will have four cars on the track, while all other brands will have three cars each – except BMW, who has just one car. All cars are privateer cars, following Lexus and Acura getting the message about not being allowed to run with full factory support, but having to compete on equal terms with all the other teams.

The ROAR test will run for three days, ending with a sort of Qualifying session determining the pitlane position order for the Daytona 24 Hours race on the last weekend of January.

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