The 53rd Rolex 24 At Daytona takes place over the weekend of 24-25 January 2015.
Endurance racing’s top drivers will once again go head to head on the 3.56-mile circuit within the Daytona International Speedway, a track that combines a tight infield section with the famous high banked turns of the tri-oval speedway.
The race starts at 14.30 ET on the Saturday, and the winning car will travel some 2,500 miles (4,000 km) in the ensuing 24 hours – similar to crossing the United States coast to coast. Just over half the race will be driven in darkness adding another layer of difficulty to an already complex challenge.
The Rolex 24 At Daytona is North America’s equivalent of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The connection between these two legendary endurance motorsport events stems from the central tenet of each test: two laps around the clock. Both races attract the very best drivers and teams, and both require passion, skill and determination to succeed. With their long, proud histories, it is little wonder that both races are supported by the Swiss watch-maker Rolex.
Watch the story of the Rolex 24 (click on the link)
A partner of track racing in Daytona Beach from its beginnings in the late 1950s, Rolex has been Title Sponsor of the Rolex 24 At Daytona since 1992. For the winner of this motorsport myth there is more than just the trophy and adulation of the crowd at stake. Each driver in the winning team is presented with the Rolex chronograph dedicated to racing drivers. Launched in 1963, the Cosmograph Daytona was baptized to mark the enduring connection between Rolex and the Daytona International Speedway.
Showcasing close teamwork, performance tuning and precision driving, the Roar Before the Rolex 24 provided a three-day sneak preview of what’s to come later this month at one of most important international endurance races: the Rolex 24 At Daytona. For many of the 53 teams here, this compulsory event was the only opportunity to test new equipment and rehearse new team members at Daytona International Speedway, the 3.56 mile road course that is as notoriously demanding as the 24 hour race-to-come is grueling. For the fortunate few who managed to test prior to the Roar, the focus was on tweaking what they’d already learned in an effort to eliminate any small issues that could plague future efforts, and they relished the opportunity gained when the weekend’s conditions turned from unseasonably cold to warm to wet, reflecting the many moods of Daytona weather that can be a determinant in outcomes.
Jordan Taylor ran the fastest lap of the three-day test, going 1:39.181 (129.218 mph) in Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP shared by his brother Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli to lead the Prototype (P) class. Other class leaders were Colin Braun, Prototype Challenge (PC), running 1:41.769 (125.814 mph) in the No. 54 CORE autosport ORECA FLM09; Earl Bamber, GT Le Mans (GTLM), 1:44.316 (122.857 mph) in the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR; and Marc Goossens in GT Daytona (GTD), 1:46.948 (119.834 mph) in the No. 33 TI Automotive / ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R.
A two-hour FOX broadcast network telecast kicks off more than 15 total hours of live FOX Sports television coverage of the 53rd Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 24-25.
The FOX telecast begins at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 24, moments before the green flag waves for the first round of the 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. It is the second consecutive year that the Rolex 24 telecast has opened on the broadcast channel, which is widely distributed in approximately 115 million homes in the United States.
FOX Sports’ coverage will total 15.5 hours across the FOX, FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2 television platforms. In addition, FOX race coverage streams live on FOX Sports GO, the app that provides live streaming video of FOX Sports content at home or on-the-go. The complete schedule is as follows:
Saturday, Jan. 24 (All times ET)
2-4 p.m. FOX Network
4-8 p.m. FOX Sports 2
8-10 p.m. FOX Sports 1
Overnight (Jan. 24-25)
10 p.m.-7 a.m. IMSA TV on IMSA.com (live video streaming and commentary)
Sunday, Jan. 25
7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. FOX Sports 1
The Rolex 24 will be the third consecutive TUDOR Championship event to feature FOX Network coverage. The inaugural season in 2014 closed with back-to-back FOX telecasts of events at Circuit of The Americas and Road Atlanta around the network’s NFL programming. Each telecast averaged more than one million viewers, with peak audiences in excess of two million which were notable high points in viewership.
IMSA.com will provide live high definition streaming coverage of the overnight hours, as well as live in-car camera footage and IMSA Radio commentary throughout the race. IMSA Radio will feature the broadcast team of John Hindhaugh from Radio Le Mans as well as Jeremy Shaw and Greg Creamer.
Photos provided by Rolex and thanks to Caracingnews.
