It’s official: Rejoice everyone, the sportscar racing offseason is finally over. This weekend, America’s greatest test of endurance and speed will return, as the platinum era of prototypes continues. The stage is set, but who will be vying for top honours, and of course that iconic Rolex watch? Here’s the lowdown on the 2025 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

photo credit – Osajus Photography from Asheville, NC, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

PORSCHE will be looking to go back to back in this race for the first time since the heydey of the mid 1980’s and their all conquering 962, which won it in three consecutive years from 1985-1987. The good news for Stuttgart is the 963 crushed the competition in IMSA and WEC, establishing itself as a true force to be reckoned with. It’s this reason why, even as someone with a soft spot for BMW, I feel as though it would be lunacy to bet against them. With four cars competing (two works entries and two privateers) and a whole host of world class drivers including Kevin Estre, Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor, the defending champions of both IMSA and this race will be a tough egg to crack for sure.

photo credit – 350z33, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ACURA have the knowhow, the drivers and the form to take the fight to Stuttgart, though. Prior to the 2024 race, they’d won three in a row (albeit the 2023 win was illegal) across two generations of car. The ARX-06 has already won this race twice, and now its back in the hands of Meyer Shank Racing, pioneers of those two wins in the GTP era. The announcement of Cadillac’s partnership with Wayne Taylor Racing meant Acura briefly lost their service provider, and also had their driver lineup practically purged. Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Brendon Hartley were just some of those names. In response, Acura snatched Renger Van Der Zande from their American rivals. Alongside the flying Dutchman, Acura also signed Nick Yelloly from BMW’s own GTP driver pool and thanks to the brand’s connection to Honda Kakuoshin Ohta from Japan’s Super Formula and Super GT championships. After his debut run at Le Mans last year (with Cadillac, ironically) Alex Palou will compete at the Rolex 24. Will they claim their fourth in five years? Only time will tell…

photo credit – Osajus Photography from Asheville, NC, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CADILLAC has undergone a world of change since their victory at Petit Le Mans last year. While the heroic drive from the pink liveried 01 still gives me goosebumps, those days a almost a world away from the Cadillac we now see. Having ditched Chip Ganassi from the end of last year, Wayne Taylor Racing were chosen to lead the IMSA assault. With this comes a bunch of new names to Cadillac’s driver ranks. I’ve already discussed most of them, but there’s also the introduction of Will Stevens, highly rated F2 talent Frederik Vesti and Felipe Drugobich, not to mention Louis Deletraz and Kamui Kobayashi. Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber also return.

photo credit – Osajus Photography from Asheville, NC, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

BMW’s highlight of 2024 was their fairytale 1-2 at Indianapolis amidst awful weather in the first ever Battle on the Bricks, but can they replicate that success across a race four times in length? There wasn’t much change in the off season for this team bar the acquisition of Kevin Magnussen for the 2025 season, and they return with two cars and a few WEC stars. Piloting the number 24 will be 2024 IMSA driver Phillip Eng, alongside Magnussen and a duo from WEC, those being Dries Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello. In the sister car, it’ll be an IMSA focused entry: IMSA drivers Jesse Krohn and Augusto Farfus unite alongside Marco Wittman and Rene Rast. The formbook may be against Porsche’s compatriots but with WRT showing increasing promise in WEC, could RLL finally give the marque a victory in this great race?

photo credit – Rick Flores from USA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

LAMBORGHINI’s debut year is best described as dismal. They didn’t even contest this race in 2024, and arrive at Daytona with an unnerving sense of doom about the GTP programme. Iron Lynx ended the deal to provide the services and in their wake Riley Motorsports have stepped up to the plate. In terms of their driver lineup, all are existing factory drivers with experience in the car, and the four picked for the 24 hour race are Mirko Bortolotti, Eduardo Mortara, Danil Kvyat and Romain Grosjean. It might consist of the firepower of Porsche or Cadillac, but Bortolotti has two class wins in the GTD class, most recently in 2019. All this is well and good, but to me there’s a sense of need. Need for this year to prove the doubters wrong, need to finally score a win for Lamborghini. If that doesn’t happen, I really do fear for the SC63’s future…

So, with everything ready and anticipation building, it’s time to crown a winner. Join me as I run you through the rest of the classes, and the entire race this weekend. One thing’s for sure; it’ll be chaos. The good kind of chaos!

Thumbnail photo credit – Osajus Photography from Asheville, NC, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons