The Porsche 959 is a sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1986 to 1993, first as a Group B rally car and later as a road legal production car designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring at least 200 units be produced.
The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layout, a 3.56-mile (5.73 km) combined road course, utilizing portions of the tri-oval and an infield road course. Since its inception, it has been held on the last weekend of January or first weekend of February as part of Speedweeks, and it is the first major automobile race of the year in North America. The race is sanctioned by IMSA and is the first race of the season for the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
The Porsche 961 was a racing car built by Porsche and based on their 959 sports car. It was intended for Group B sports car racing, complementing the purpose-built 956 and 962C which ran Group C in the World Sports-Prototype Championship. The 961 project was short-lived, running only three races and seeing the construction of only one car. Plans to sell the car to customers were scrapped when the Group B class was canceled.
The Porsche 911 GT1 is a car designed and developed by German automobile manufacturer Porsche AG to compete in the GT1 class of sportscar racing, which also required a street-legal version for homologation purposes. The limited-production street-legal version developed as a result was named the 911 GT1 Straßenversion.
A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The technical requirements for an LMP include bodywork covering all mechanical elements of the car. Currently, there are three classes within Le Mans Prototypes, designated LMP1, LMP2, and LMP3.
Olivier Pla is a French racing driver currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Glickenhaus Racing.
The Porsche 962 is a sports-prototype racing car built by Porsche as a replacement for the 956 and designed mainly to comply with IMSA's GTP regulations, although it would later compete in the European Group C formula as the 956 had. The 962 was introduced at the end of 1984, from which it quickly became successful through private owners while having a remarkably long-lived career, with some examples still proving competitive into the mid-1990s. The vehicle was later replaced by the Porsche WSC-95.
A Daytona Prototype is a type of sports prototype racing car developed specifically for the Grand American Road Racing Association's Rolex Sports Car Series as their top class of car, which replaced their main prototype racing class, specifically Le Mans Prototypes (LMPs). The cars later competed in the merged series of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, from 2014-2016, before being phased out and replaced by the Daytona Prototype International class in 2017. They are named after the main series event, the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Carl "Calle" Rosenblad is a Swedish auto racing driver. He is married with two children.
Alessandro Balzan is an Italian auto racing driver.
The Riley MkXI, and its evolutions and deriatives, the Riley MkXX, the Riley MkXXII, and the Riley MkXXVI, are a series of Daytona Prototype race cars, designed, developed and built by Riley Technologies, between 2003 and 2016. Between 2003 and 2016, the cars scored a combined total of 84 race wins, achieved 106 podium finishes, and clinched 85 pole positions.
Crawford Composites is an American manufacturer of carbon fiber and composite parts company based in Denver, North Carolina. Crawford designs and manufacture structural and non-structural composite components in industries such as aerospace, aviation, motor sports, health care, defense and structural construction.
The 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was the 47th season of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) GT Championship that traces its lineage to the 1971 IMSA GT Championship. It was the fourth season of the United SportsCar Championship and second under the name as the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It began on 28 January with the 24 Hours of Daytona, and ended on 7 October with the Petit Le Mans.
The Dallara P217 is a sportscar prototype built by Dallara Automobili to the 2017 FIA/ACO regulations for the Le Mans Prototype LMP2 class. The car also meets the regulations for the Le Mans Prototype 2 Class of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. It was active in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and the European Le Mans Series. The prototype made its debut at the 2017 4 Hours of Silverstone.
The 2019 24 Hours of Daytona was an International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)-sanctioned endurance sports car race held at the Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, on January 26–27, 2019. It was the 57th running of the race, and the first of 12 races in the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, and the first of four rounds of the 2019 Michelin Endurance Cup. The race was ended ahead of the 22nd Hour, due to heavy rainfall. The race was won overall by Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor, Fernando Alonso, and Kamui Kobayashi in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. The LMP2 class was won by the #18 DragonSpeed Oreca 07, piloted by Pastor Maldonado, Roberto Gonzalez, Sebastián Saavedra and Ryan Cullen. The GTLM class was won by the #25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE of Connor de Phillippi, Augusto Farfus, Philipp Eng, and Colton Herta. The GTD class was won for a second consecutive year by the #11 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers, and Christian Engelhart.
An LMDh is a type of sports prototype race car that competes alongside Le Mans Hypercar entries in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. It will also compete in the GTP class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship from 2023.
The 2022 12 Hours of Sebring was an endurance sports car race held at Sebring International Raceway near Sebring, Florida from 16 to 19 March 2022. It was the second round of both the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Endurance Cup. JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing entered as the defending overall winners of the 12-hour event.
The Porsche 963 is an LMDh sports prototype racing car built by Multimatic and designed by Porsche to compete in the Hypercar and GTP classes in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship, respectively. The 963 name draws inspiration from the Porsche 956 and Porsche 962 that raced in the 1980's, which also competed in American and European racing series. The car was revealed at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed, with a traditional red, white, and black livery. The official race debut of the 963 is set to be the season-opening round of the 2023 IMSA Championship at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The car is also slated for a non-competitive dress rehearsal at the 2022 8 Hours of Bahrain.
The Dallara DP01 is a second-generation Daytona Prototype race car, designed, developed and built by Italian manufacturer Dallara, for the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, in 2008. It was powered by a number of different engines, including Pontiac, Chevrolet, and Ford V8 engines, and even a Ford EcoBoost V6 engine.
The Crawford DP03 is a first-generation Daytona Prototype sports racing car, designed, developed and built by American manufacturer Crawford Composites, in 2003.
