The 2016 24 Hours of Daytona (formally the 54th Rolex 24 at Daytona) was an International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)-sanctioned 24-hour automobile endurance race for Prototype and Grand Touring sports cars held at the Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, from January 30 to 31, 2016. It was the first of twelve 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship races, the 54th 24 Hours of Daytona, and the first of the four-round North American Endurance Cup. The event was attended by approximately 35,000 people.
SMP Racing began from pole position after Mikhail Aleshin set the fastest lap in the Prototype class. The lead was exchanged several times between the DeltaWing, Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM), Michael Shank Racing, Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR), Mazda Motorsports and Action Express Racing teams during the race. ESM's Ed Brown, Pipo Derani, Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek recovered from a late race speeding penalty to achieve the team's first win at Daytona and the lead of both the Prototype Drivers' and Teams' Championships. Honda took the lead of the Prototype Manufacturers' Championship with its first overall victory in the event. WTR's Max Angelelli, Rubens Barrichello, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor finished 26 seconds later in second, and Ryan Dalziel, Marc Goossens and Ryan Hunter-Reay of VisitFlorida Racing recovered from a late race change of car component to finish third.
The Prototype Challenge (PC) category was won by JDC–Miller MotorSports' Oreca FLM09 car of Kenton Koch—Chris Miller, Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson—after the team recovered from a significant crash damaging their car in the 15th hour. Robert Alon, Tom Kimber-Smith, Jose Gutiérrez and Nick Boulle finished five laps down in second, while BAR1 Motorsports' Tomy Drissi, Marc Drumwright, Brendan Gaughan, Johnny Mowlem and Ricardo Vera was third. Corvette Racing won the Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) class with a Chevrolet Corvette C7.R shared by Oliver Gavin. Tommy Milner and Marcel Fässler beating their teammates Antonio García, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller by the race's closest finishing margin of 0.034 seconds. Porsche took third with Earl Bamber, Michael Christensen and Frédéric Makowiecki sharing a 911 RSR. Konrad Motorsport led the final nine minutes in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) until its lead Lamborghini Huracán made a pit stop for fuel handing the victory to Magnus Racing's Andy Lally, John Potter, René Rast and Marco Seefried. Black Swan Racing were second in class with Nicky Catsburg, Patrick Long, Tim Pappas and Andy Pilgrim, and Damien Faulkner, Eric Foss, Ben Keating, Jeff Mosing and Gar Robinson took third for Riley Motorsports.
Background
Preview NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., who built the Daytona International Speedway in 1959, conceived the 24 Hours of Daytona as a race to attract European sports car endurance racing to the United States and provide international exposure to Daytona. It is informally considered part of the "Triple Crown of Endurance Racing" with the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2015. It was the third consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC and the 54th 24 Hours of Daytona. The 24 Hours of Daytona was the first of twelve scheduled automobile endurance races of 2016 by IMSA, and the first in the four round North American Endurance Cup (NAEC). It occurred at the 12-turn Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, between January 30 and 31.
Entry list There were 54 cars officially entered for the race with most of the entries in the Prototype and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) categories. The 2015 race winners, Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR), returned to defend their title. Action Express Racing (AXR) and VisitFlorida Racing (VFR) fielded two Chevrolet Corvette DP cars and Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) one. CGR fielded two Ford-powered Riley MkXXVI cars, while a BMW-engined example was entered by Highway to Help. Mazda Motorsports had two Lola B08/80-Mazda cars, and the Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) and Michael Shank Racing (MSR) teams each entered a single Ligier JS P2 chassis with Honda HR35TT twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 engines. SMP Racing made its North American endurance debut at Daytona with a Nissan-powered BR Engineering BR01. Panoz brought the DeltaWing car to Daytona for the fifth successive year. The Prototype Challenge (PC) class was composed of eight Oreca FLM09-Chevrolet cars: two from Starworks Motorsports and BAR1 Motorsports. CORE Autosport, JDC–Miller MotorSports, Performance Tech and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entered one car each.
Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) consisted of 11 cars from 5 different brands. Team RLL debuted the BMW M6 GTLM at Daytona. CGR with Felix Sabates partnered with Ford for two debuting Ford GTs. Porsche fielded two 911 RSRs, three 488 GTEs represented Ferrari with one each from Risi Competizione, Scuderia Corsa and SMP Racing, and Corvette Racing entered two C7.Rs. GTD featured 22 cars among seven different GT3 manufacturers. Lamborghini was represented by five Huracáns in its North American endurance debut: two by Konrad Motorsports and one each from Change Racing, O'Gara Motorsport and Paul Miller Racing (PMR). Porsche had five 911 Rs: two for Alex Job Racing (AJR) and one each for Black Swan Racing, Frikadelli Racing and Park Place Motorsports (PPM). A mix of teams and automotive brands made up the rest of the GTD field. These included two Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS cars: one each from Magnus Racing and Flying Lizard Motorsports (FLM) with Krohn Racing for the revised car's race debut. Turner Motorsport fielded two BMW M6s, Scuderia Corsa and Spirit of Race entered two 458 Italias. There were two Aston Martin V12 Vantages from Aston Martin Racing and TRG-AMR and two Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper Rs.
Two full-time IMSA SCC drivers drove a car, joined by one NAEC racer and one or two extra drivers. These additional participants were recruited from a variety of racing categories, including the FIA World Endurance Championship (such as Marcel Fässler for Corvette and Richie Stanaway for Aston Martin), the IndyCar Series (such as Ryan Hunter-Reay for VFR and Scott Dixon for CGR), and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (such as Augusto Farfus and Bruno Spengler for Team RLL) among others. Some drivers competed at Daytona on a one-off basis in 2016 such as: European Formula Three Championship racers Lance Stroll and Felix Rosenqvist, V8 Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen, and A. J. Allmendinger, Brendan Gaughan, Jamie McMurray, Justin Marks, and Kyle Larson from NASCAR. Jonny Adam won the 2016 Sunoco Whelen Challenge with the 2015 British GT3 title, earning him a seat with AXR. Four women entered the race: Ashley Freiberg, Katherine Legge, Christina Nielsen, and Sabine Schmitz.
Testing There were fifty-four entries involved in three days of testing divided into seven sessions held at the circuit from January 8 to 10. Risi missed the test session because it was constructing its 488 in Italy. Oswaldo Negri Jr. set the fastest time early on the first day with a 1:39.655 lap in the 60 MSR Ligier-Honda. His co-driver Olivier Pla improved to a 1:39.445 lap in the second session. Pipo Derani lapped second-fastest in ESM's No. 2 Ligier-Honda and Sean Rayhall put the DeltaWing third. The fastest Daytona Prototype was Jordan Taylor's No. 10 WTR Corvette in fourth. Separate crashes by Stroll at turn five soon after he left the pit lane, and João Barbosa of AXR at the Bus Stop chicane due to a possible broken rear suspension, led to stoppages on the first day. Colin Braun's No. 54 CORE Autosport Oreca led in PC with a 1:42.423 lap. BMWs took the first two positions in GTLM with Lucas Luhr's No. 100 car setting a 1:45.088lap with Farfus' No. 25 entry second. Antonio García's No. 3 Corvette and Richard Westbrook's No. 66 Ford were third and fourth in class. A leak in an FIA-mandated fuel vent on Tommy Milner's No. 4 Corvette overheated when fuel hit it and caused the car's right-rear corner to catch fire. Raffaele Giammaria's No. 51 Spirit Ferrari led GTD from Jeroen Bleekemolen's No. 23 Riley Viper.
Heavy morning fog prompted IMSA to revise the second day's schedule. Pla set the day's fastest time, a 1:39.445, ahead of Legge's DeltaWing in second. Ricky Taylor improved the WTR Corvette to third. Spencer Pigot was fourth in Mazda's No. 55 Lola, with Scott Sharp's ESM Ligier-Honda fifth. Maro Engel's No. 88 Starworks Motorsport Oreca led the PC category with a 1:43.175 time from Tom Kimber-Smith's No. 52 PR1 entry. Two crashes by Alex Popow and his teammate Renger van der Zande caused further stoppages to testing. Mike Rockenfeller's No. 3 Corvette led GTLM with a 1:45.256 lap, ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi's No. 68 Scuderia car, Westbrook's No. 67 Ford and Jan Magnussen's No. 4 Corvette. Mirko Bortolotti's No. 48 PMR Lamborghini led in GTD with Fabio Babini's No. 28 Konrad car second. An accident with the Konrad Lamborghini and Dion von Moltke caused further disruption to testing.
The third and final day of testing held in cloudy and clear weather saw Daytona debutant Derani's ESM Ligier-Honda go fastest with a 1:39.438 time with 15 minutes left. Derani demoted Negri's MSR Ligier-Honda, which was two-tenths of a second slower in second, and Tom Long put the No. 70 Lola-Mazda third. Kirill Ladygin set the fourth-fastest lap in SMP Racing's No. 37 BR01-Nissan, and Jonathan Bomarito's No. 55 Lola-Mazda was fifth. Jack Hawksworth set the PC category's fastest lap for Starworks Motorsport's No. 8 team at 1:42.118, 0.340 seconds faster than his teammate Rosenqvist in second. Oliver Gavin's No. 4 Corvette recorded the day's quickest GTLM lap of 1:45.106. Dirk Müller caused damage to the front of the No. 66 Ford at turn five to stop testing again. The fastest GTD laps were set in the morning session by Leh Keen's No. 22 AJR Porsche and Damien Faulkner's No. 93 Riley Dodge.
Balance of performance changes After testing, IMSA altered the balance of performance in all four categories in an attempt to achieve parity within them. The BR01, DeltaWing and Ligiers received ballast increases to affect their handling. The Riley-Fords, Ligier-Hondas and Lola-Mazdas had their turbocharger boost pressures lowered to reduce performances. The Corvette Daytona Prototypes had performance changes. The eight PC vehicles had the position of their rear wings adjusted to affect its aerodynamic efficiency. BMW, Ferrari, and Ford had their turbocharger boost pressures cut to lower top speeds. Porsche's and Corvette had fuel tank size increases of . The GTD, Aston Martin, Audi, Dodge and Ferrari all had of weight deducted, as Lamborghini and BMW received ballast increases of the same amount. Porsche received a fuel capacity increase of .
Practice and qualifying There were four practice sessions preceding the race's start on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first one-hour session on Thursday morning was followed by a half-hour session later that afternoon. The third held that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.