Although I’ll leave it up to Y’all to decide which
is which…
This has become another of my countless long
form No Fenders two part harmony posts. Since I figured that nobody would still
be reading after four pages. Or was if five, El Correctomundo?
Lamborghini
Lamborghini SC63
Engine:
3.8-litre V-8 Twin Turbo
Team: Lamborghini Riley Motorsports
#63 Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil
Kyvat and Edoardo Mortara
Lamborghini makes its Rolex 24 debut in the top
Grand Touring Prototypes (GTP) class, albeit only contesting the five Michelin
Endurance Cup rounds. Now under the direction of Riley Motorsports; so fingers
crossed, since how can you not root for Bill Riley and company, Eh?
Know that Romain Grosjean’s running a full
Michelin Endurance Cup campaign, and ergo for Mirko Bortolotti. But I don’t
know what former Scuderia Tor Rosso and Red Bull Racing F1 driver Daniil
Kyvat’s calendar looks like? And ditto for Edoardo Mortaro, who’s presumably
the third driver?
PORSCHE
Porsche 963
Engine:
4.6-litre V-8 Twin Turbo
Team: Proton Competition
#5 Neel Jani, Tristan Vautier, Nico Pino and
Julien Andlauer
Proton Competition was the only GTP squad with its
partial drivers lineup listed as TBA initially prior to the Roar before Rolex
24. With much driver activity going on behind the scenes.
Gianmaria Bruni was the only driver to complete
the full season for Proton last year. Yet the Italian tested for rival
JDC-Miller Motorsports last November and was erroneously left on Proton’s
Daytona entry list.
Neel Jani raced for Proton at Daytona last
year, and was the only confirmed Proton Competition IMSA GTP and FIA World
Endurance Championship driver currently listed just ten days prior to the Roar.
IMSA’s updated Rolex 24 entry list on January
9th revealed that former JDC-Miller Motorsports driver Tristan Turbo’ Vautier
had returned to the cockpit, along with LMP2 graduate Nico Pino. With room for
a fourth driver to be added later…
Then just five days prior to the Roar, Proton
announced Julien Andlauer as the fourth pilot of their “Mach-5” Porsche 963
entry.
Andlauer is now a Porsche Penske Factory driver
in the “Weckity Wec”, (WEC) having previously driven for Proton.
Meanwhile Proton also confirmed it will contest
all five of the Michelin Endurance Cup rounds, after Porsche had previously
announced that only JDC-Miller Motorsports would be its sole customer 963 team
this season.
Team: Porsche Penske Motorsport
#6 Mathieu Jaminet, Mat Campbell and Kevin Estr
#7 Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor
The big news for Porsche Penske Motorsports was
the surprising decision to drop reigning IMSA Prototypes champion Dane Cameron.
As Nick Tandy slides over from the No. 6 entry He
drove fulltime last season. With Matt Campbell being elevated from just running
the major endurance rounds aboard the No. 7 last year to fulltime status in the
No. 6 entry.
Whilst Kevin Estr and Laurens Vanthoor continue
in their limited season endurance round supporting roles.
Team: JDC-Miller Motorsports
#85 Tijmen van der Helm, Gianmaria Bruni, Pascal
Wehrlein and Bryce Aron
Tijmen van der Helm is the only holdover from
last season, after co-driver “Westie”, aka Richard Westbrook retired from
racing. Making me wonder who His new full season co-driver would be?
With the mystery solved on January 7th with the
announcement that Gianmaria Bruni would be Westbrook’s full season replacement,
after having previously tested for JDC-Miller Motorsports.
Twenty-one year old Bryce Aron was a rookie in
Indy NXT last year, racing for Andretti Global. Aron finished ninth overall,
scoring a total of seven Top 10 finishes, including three top five’s, wit two
third place finishes being His best result. And will contest the 2025 Indy NXT
season for HMD Motorsports aboard its No. 39 entry.
Reigning Werks’ Porsche Formula E Champion
Pascal Wehrlein will make His Daytona debut at this year’s Rolex 24. Being a
“One-off” for now. Since Wehrlein’s “Day Job” is racing for Porsche in Formula
E, having finished third at the Mexico City ePrix.
As Aron and Wehrlein are both making their IMSA debuts at this year’s 24 Hours of Daytona.
