page_title: 2018 24 Hours of Daytona
section_title: Entry list
hierarchical_section_title: 2018 24 Hours of Daytona / Background / Entry list
caption_attribution_description: English: Fernando Alonso at 2016 Moto GP Italian Grand Prix.
context_page_description: The 2018 24 Hours of Daytona was an International Motor Sports Association-sanctioned 24-hour automobile endurance race for Daytona Prototype and Grand Touring sports cars held at the Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, on January 27–28, 2018. It was the first of twelve 2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races, the 56th edition of the event, and the first of four rounds of the North American Endurance Cup.
  Renger van der Zande for Wayne Taylor Racing started from pole position and led for most of the opening hour. Filipe Albuquerque of Mustang Sampling Racing took the lead after the first round of pit stops and kept it for five hours before losing it to Team Penske's Hélio Castroneves. Whelen Engineering Racing, Penske and Mustang Sampling traded the lead several times over the next 12 hours. Mustang Sampling's Albuquerque, Christian Fittipaldi and João Barbosa led the final third of the race to win in a record-breaking distance of 808 laps and 2,876.48 miles and take the lead of the Prototype Drivers' and Teams' Championships.
context_section_description: Fifty cars were officially entered for the 24 Hours of Daytona with the bulk of entries in the Prototype and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) categories. The 2017 race winner, Wayne Taylor Racing, returned to defend their title. Three existing teams, Action Express Racing, Spirit of Daytona Racing and Extreme Speed Motorsports, each fielded two Daytona Prototype International (DPi) cars called Cadillac DPi-V.R and Nissan Onroak DPi. Wayne Taylor sent a solitary Cadillac DPi-V.R chassis to the race. Penske Racing made their full-time sports car racing competition comeback for the first time since the 2009 Rolex Sports Car Series. They fielded a pair of Honda-powered Acura ARX-05 DPis for 2018. Mazda returned to sports car racing after withdrawing with three races left in the 2017 season so their duo of RT24-Ps could be re-engineered by German outfit Team Joest. They were joined by ten global-specification Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) cars, represented by three out of the four major chassis: six Oreca 07s entered by JDC-Miller MotorSports, Jackie Chan DCR JOTA (two each), Performance Tech Motorsports, CORE Autosport (one each). a trio of Ligier JS P217s utilised by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports (one) and United Autosports (two), and one Riley Mk. 30 from BAR1 Motorsports.
  After the aging Prototype Challenge class was retired after 2017 due to declining interest from teams, Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) was made the highest-ranking class below the Prototype category in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Nine cars from five manufacturers were entered for Daytona. The BMW M8 GTE made its racing competition debut at the track; Team RLL entered two chassis for the season. Porsche fielded two 911 RSRs for the second successive season, and Chip Ganassi Racing entered their two Ford GTs for the third consecutive year. Ferrari aligned with Risi Competizione for one 488 GTE. Corvette Racing transported their aging duo of C7.Rs to Daytona. GTD composed twenty-one cars amongst eight GT3 manufacturers. Ferrari was the most represented marque in the category with four 488s: two by Scuderia Corsa and one each from Spirit of Race and Risi Competizione. A mix of teams and automotive brands made up the rest of the GTD field. These included two GRT Grasser Racing Team-entered Lamborghini Huracáns with a third by Paul Miller Racing, and a trio of Riley Motorsports-entered Mercedes-AMGs. Michael Shank Racing and HART entered three Acura NSXs and a trio of Porsche 911 Rs with one each from Park Place Motorsports, Wright Motorsports and Manthey Racing. Other cars fielded were a duo of Audi R8 LMS from Magnus Racing and Land Motorsport, two Lexus RC Fs by 3GT Racing and a BMW M6 from Turner Motorsport.
  Each car was driven by two drivers who contested the entire WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. They were joined by one North American Endurance Cup 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 Gustavo Menezes for JDC-Miller MotorSports), the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (such as René Rast for Mazda Team Joest), and the IndyCar Series (such as Ryan Hunter-Reay for Wayne Taylor) among others. Some drivers competed at Daytona on a one-off basis, such as Fernando Alonso, a two-time Formula One World Champion, Williams driver Lance Stroll and Formula E racers Felix Rosenqvist and António Félix da Costa. A. J. Allmendinger, Justin Marks, Brendan Gaughan and Austin Cindric from NASCAR, and 2017 Formula Three European Champion Lando Norris entered the event. Stuart Middleton won the Sunoco Whelen Challenge by taking the GT4 category title in his debut year in the British GT Championship, earning him a seat with Action Express Racing.
caption: Fernando Alonso, the two-time Formula One World Champion (pictured in 2016) made a one-off appearance for United Autosports for Daytona.
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