Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, Two Weekends of Rolling Thunder.

Report by Mark Roden

1 March 2023

The 61^st edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona race held in 2023 was not only my first 24-hour race but also my first event at Daytona International Speedway.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from the event or from the venue.  Neither disappointed.

For the 2023 season, the Dpi class has been replaced by the GTP, or Grand Touring Prototypes, returning decades after their prominence in IMSA racing in the 80’s through the mid-90’s.  Back then the series was dominated by Porsche 962, Toyota and Nissan. 

This year the new GTP cars are hybrids produced by the likes of, once again, Porsche, but also by Cadillac, BMW and Acura.  They are sleeker than their predecessors and have a very modern look. 

This year the Meyer Shank Racing team, sporting an Acura GTP, was looking to defend their Dpi class win of 2022 with three returning drivers: Tom Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud. Along with newcomer Colin Braun, their entry populated garage number 1 in the paddock.

The other Acura team (Wayne Taylor Racing) figured to go head-to-head with them in the race.  Other entries included two Rahal-Lanigan-Letterman Racing BMW’s, three Cadillac teams and a duo of Porsches provided by Penske Motorsports.

The Rolex starts with the “ROAR Before the 24”. Held the weekend prior to the race, it is an event unto itself, encompassing practice and qualifying sessions by the top classes, as well as the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race. 

Friday 20 Jan 2023 – Day 1, ROAR Before the 24.

I did not attend Friday, but I am including the results from the two Weathertech practice sessions of the day.

Saturday 21 JAN 2023 – Day 2, ROAR Before the 24.

Parking in the infield is allowed during ROAR weekend, which came in handy once or twice.  The grounds were not too crowded, and there was plenty of room to move about and find a good spot in the bench seats scattered around the road course. I parked very close to track dead centre, just off the main access road running north/south across the entire track.

The Michelin Challenge morning practice session was just finishing up when I arrived, and the Weathertech practice was about to start. I found my way to some seats on the straight between Turn 4 (the “Dogleg”) and Turn 5.  The first cars out were some of the LMP2 and LMP3 entries along with GTD-PRO, followed shortly by the GTPs.

Most of the road course was visible from my spot.  It was a very versatile position to get many angles of the cars, including straight on shots into and out of the turns and high-speed pans in both directions.

During the practice sessions, the two Acuras were the fastest of the GTPs, followed closely by the Porsche of Nasr/Campbell/Christensen.  The gap between first and last in class ranged from 1-2 seconds per lap during practice, closing a bit to just under a second during qualifying on Sunday. The gaps between the top 5 spots were much closer than that.

In the afternoon session, the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura again took the top spot, with Taylor Racing taking second and an almost identical gap.  I moved closer to the Horseshoe turn, staying in the seats about 6 rows up.  This gave me some good views including a decent front-end perspective without fussing with the fence.

I was not at the track for the evening session but have included the timing grid of the top 3 spots:

Sunday 22 JAN 2023 – Day 3, ROAR Before the 24.

On Sunday I returned to the section of trackside between T3 and T5 where I had been previously.  The weather was quite a bit brighter in the morning than the day before, so I wanted to get some of the same shots I had already, but with better lighting.  I always strive to get at least one good and sharp image of each car in as many different positions and/or weather conditions as possible.

The Michelin Challenge practice started the morning with their only practice session of the day and the fifth of the week, followed by the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge RACE #2.  The VP series offers a variety of car makes and it reminds me of the Trans Am series of years ago.  Cars like the Ford Mustang GT4, Aston Martin GT4, BMW M4 GT4, Porsche Cayman 718 GT4, Audi RS3, even a Hyundai Elantra N and a Honda Civic Type R, along with some notable drivers from NASCAR series Ben Rhodes, Hailie Deegan, Harrison Burton and Zane Smith, give the series an exciting allure alongside the Weathertech championship series.

Here are a few shots from the Michelin Pilot Challenge practice session:

In between the Michelin practice and the VP race, I wandered through the Fan Zone and into the garage area, still able to move about easily.  I was able to catch Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud in garage spot #1 and a few of the cars being worked on for the next session.

I returned to the track to watch the VP race and finish out the weekend’s action with the Weathertech qualifying session. 

Some images from Weathertech qualifying:

One Daytona.

On Wednesday I attended an event across from the speedway called One Daytona.  Several of the cars from different classes were towed in and placed around a large roundabout.  In the middle was a stage and they had set up for a driver Q&A session that evening. 

I was too busy photographing the cars to even notice that the Acura boys were talking for a good half hour!  By the time I realized it they had finished and were leaving the stage.  I did get quite a few close-up shots of the new GTPs and some others.

Thursday, first day of 24 Hour Race Weekend.

Instead of going back into the same areas I covered during the ROAR, I wandered straight into the north end camping area from the cart dropoff point.  Along the fence line you can see the track very well due to the banking, and it is unobstructed in most locations (there are many large lights to illuminate the track at night; these are large but mostly out of the way as long as you stay somewhat in the superspeedway turn). 

Once again, my day started with the Michelin Challenge, now in their 6^th practice session of the event.  The cars looked beautiful on the track with a very attractive and bright morning light hitting them.  These were followed by the first of four full practice sessions throughout the weekend prior to the actual race on Saturday.

Lap times for the GTP entries were similar to the previous weekend.  Taylor Racing Acura bested the bunch during this practice with a lap time of 1’35.366 and a gap of 0.266 from the 02 Cadillac of Bamber/Lynn/Westbrook and 0.299 from the MSR Acura. 

The 01 Cadillac driven by former Indycar driver Sebastian Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and current Indycar driver Scott Dixon was back by 0.374 and the Porsche of Jaminet/Tandy/Cameron was just behind them, with a gap to the leader of 0.386. 

The remaining GTP entries were well off pace, the closest being the other Cadillac entry with a leader gap of 1.184.

While shooting at the north end I found a large concrete barrier block placed in front of one of the restroom buildings.  This block was large enough to sit or lean on and even stand on. 

I used it for a while, and then walked up to the fence and photographed some more, shooting right through the fence without any problem due to the 400mm focal length of the lens and some camera settings.

After spending some time on the north end, I walked to the garage area and fan zone.  I found Hawksworth’s car being serviced as well as a few others, but I didn’t stay in the garage area for very long as it was quite a bit more crowded than the week before. 

I wanted to get some lower angles and so I avoided the seats in favour of the fence line. Standing at ground level made it easier to catch some daylight underneath the cars and get a blurry background compared to just tarmac.  It’s a subtle change, but it changes the complexion of the photograph completely.  You can also see the tilt of the car as it negotiates the turn.

For the second Weathertech session of the day I made my way to the south end of the track, outside turns 5 and 6.  This gave me a nice view of the line from turn 5 back toward the exit of the road course.  The Cadillacs were gaining ground; the 02 Caddy took top spot of the session and there was a Cadillac in 3 of the top 4 spots.  The MSR Acura was down a bit in this session. 



The Campbell Porsche found itself at the top of the pile at the end of the night practice, along with the Taylor Acura and all 3 Cadillacs within ½ second gap.

On my way back to the trolley pickup point I stopped along the straight, between the “dogleg” and T5.  It turned out to be quite a nice spot and the light was getting very good.  The Rolex banners looked great as a backdrop

Saturday, 24 Hours of Daytona Race Start.

I skipped Friday to recover from all the walking, and so I missed some practice sessions and the Michelin Pilot BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona race.  Two of the Cadillacs dominated the first practice of the day, followed by one of the BMWs driven by Phillippi/Yelloly/van der Linde and Herta.

The second and final session on Friday, and last before the race, was a GTP only a 20 minute session with times that were off by 1-2 seconds. 

On race day I knew from the start that I would not be able to make the entire race due to lingering issues with my knees, so I set out to capture as many shots as I could before I had to leave the track from eventual fatigue.  The walking was getting to me, and I estimated that I was going to be leaving some time around 4-6 hours into the race.  My goal for race day was to make it well into the evening and catch the night shots that I had missed on previous days.   

I went to the garage early, taking in some of the spaces that I hadn’t seen before.  I ran across a display of vintage GTP and other vehicles that were rolling into the fan zone. 

For the start of the race I was in a bench seating area at the very south end of the track.  From the top of these, which were about 16 rows high, you could see through the safety gate at T5 and hear them from all around the track. 

The MSR Acura took off from the start, and it was unfortunate that something was happening with one of the BMWs.  The GTP’s were really showing their speed early, clearly much faster than the LMP2/3 cars and much, much faster than the GTD cars.

I stayed in that spot for 2 hours and then made my way across the south end to the area between turns 5 and 6.

I had been able to shoot around the catch fence Thursday, but on race day most of the fence was blocked from all the caravans and other vehicles that had set up for the race, so it was more difficult to find a spot.



It was getting late and I wanted to try and move around a bit more, so I got as far as I could go in the infield. 

First, I spent some time around the safety gate and down the fence line.

Continuing from there I walked further south toward the transition curve (Turn 6) which spans from the last portion of the road course back onto the speedway at NASCAR turn 1.  I stayed there until it got dark and worked both camera and video until I felt that it was time to leave. 

I made it back to my car around 2 hours later.  It felt good to have lasted 6 hours through the race before I threw in the towel.  I was glad to have captured a decent amount of night work in the end to make up for missing two night sessions in prior days. 

Overall, I am happy with the work that I did and the experience that I had.  I will surely be going back for the “24 in ’24.”

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