One month down! The year 2025 is flying by. It will be over before you know it. January is a strange month. A fair amount happened, not too much, but far more than nothing, yet there is so much ahead of us. If you are already exhausted, it is going to be a long year. It is a good high-intensity start to the year, getting your heart rate going before the long run of the year begins.
For the motorsports world, January is mainly notable events. There aren't many mid-level competitions taking place. They all carry some history and give you a reason to watch. The biggest of them all is the 24 Hours of Daytona, and such a famed race needs a little more time to digest. We are nearly a week removed from when the checkered flag waved, but there is plenty remaining to be said.
Putting a Bow on Daytona
History always happens at Daytona, especially in the 24 Hours. It is inescapable. You are going to stumble upon something even if on accident. There are a few places to begin, but let's start with the rain I hinted at on Monday.
A Grand Sham
With the #7 Porsche winning overall, Nick Tandy accomplished something no other driver has done in motorsports history. Tandy became the first driver with overall victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Daytona, Nürburging 24 Hours and the Spa 24 Hours.
It was labeled as Tandy completing the "Grand Slam" in 24-hour races...
Except the "Grand Slam" is made up.
Prior to January 1 of this year, no one had ever spoke about there being a grand slam of 24-hour races. It didn't exist. It wasn't a thing. Somewhere in the lead up to this year's race at Daytona, it was noted that Tandy and Earl Bamber could become the first drivers with overall victories in all four events, and then the name was given.
But calling it a grand slam doesn't mean anything, the same way the Triple Crown of Motorsports doesn't really mean anything.
For starters, these events have had vastly different histories. Up until the 21st century, the Spa 24 Hours was a touring car race. The top drivers in sports car racing didn't run the Spa 24 Hours. The manufacturer interest was not the same. Though first run in 1924, the Spa 24 Hours wasn't run for a decade from 1954 through 1963 and it only ran once from 1950 to 1963.
Nürburgring, which only first ran a 24-hour race in 1970, mirrored Spa for the first part of its history as a touring car race mostly for amateur lineups. It wasn't until the start of the 21st century that GT racing took over.
Le Mans and Daytona have been the staples for multi-class 24-hour races and have featured top end prototypes and GT cars from the beginning. At no point in the 1980s was any driver considering going for the "Grand Slam" of 24-hour races because while they were all 24-hour competitions, they were vastly different regulations.
In the 21st century, Spa and Nürburgring grew when they took on GT cars as the lead class, first in the GT1 era and then in the GT3. These classifications spread worldwide and garnered significant manufacturer support. In turn, these races grew in stature. They are still different. Le Mans and Daytona remain prototype races while Spa and Nürburgring remain GT, but bigger than they ever were. However, the four remain unconnected.
It is arbitrary to call this the grand slam. Why these four races? Why isn't the Dubai 24 Hour considered? They are all endurance races, but are no more connected than they were 20, 30 or 40 years ago.
This is nothing against Tandy, who is an incredible driver and his success in all of those events across LMP1, GTP and GT3 regulations validate his greatness, but this isn't an accomplishment that drivers were striving to achieve. This wasn't a long-awaited glass ceiling to be broken. As the motorsports world has become more homogenous, these races become closer related when for generations they stood on their own at different levels.
There is a reason why Derek Bell, Hurley Haywood, Henri Pescarolo, Olivier Gendebien, Tom Kristensen and Scott Pruett never came close to completing the "Grand Slam." Manufacturers dedicated to top tier prototype racing were not interested in a touring car-based endurance race. We didn't see prototype drivers crossing over into GT racing on a whim.
Tandy achieved this but others weren't trying. It wasn't a thought.
It is a product of a different era. Tandy came up the GT ranks with Porsche and that has led to prototype opportunities and he has fully taken advantage of it. As Spa and Nürburgring became GT-focused events, the manufacturer interest increased, and the likes of Porsche, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari, Aston Martin and so on have brought out their top drivers. That wasn't the way for the longest time.
We can recognize Tandy's achievement and acknowledge how brilliant his career has been (the man won Petit Le Mans overall in a GT car!), but also remember how different the motorsports world is in 2025 compared to previous decades.
Dandy Tandy
Shifting moods to something positive, with Tandy's victory overall, he became the 142nd driver with multiple class victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona. In 2014, Tandy was a member of the GTLM winning team alongside Richard Lietz and Patrick Pilet in the #911 Porsche. It was 11 years between Daytona victories for Tandy.
How many other drivers have gone a decade between victories at Daytona?
Tandy made it lucky #13. The 12 prior to him were...
Rolf Stommelen (Overall in 1968 and overall in 1978)
John Paul, Jr. (Overall in 1982 and overall in 1997)
John Schneider (Lights in 1986 and overall in 1997)
David Brabham (GTP in 1992 and DP in 2003)
Christian Fittipaldi (Overall in 2004 and overall in 2014)
Dominik Farnbacher (GT in 2005 and GTD in 2015)
Scott Sharp (Overall in 1996 and overall in 2016)
Max Angelelli (Overall in 2005 and overall in 2017)
Dirk Müller (GT1 in 1998 and GTLM in 2017)
Carlos de Quesada (GT in 2007 and GTD in 2017)
Ryan Dalziel (Overall in 2010 and LMP2 in 2021)
Alessandro Pier Guidi (GTD in 2014 and GTD Pro in 2024)
That is a pretty good group of drivers to be included with.
Three-Timers Club
While Tandy picked up his second Daytona victory, Felipe Nasr picked up his third. Nasr won in GTD Pro in 2022 before his consecutive overall victories.
Nasr became the 49th driver respectively with at least three Daytona class victories. We nearly had a 50th three-time Daytona winner, but the #8 Tower Motorsport Oreca was disqualified for excessive wear to its skid block costing Sébastien Bourdais a third victory.
Acknowledging the LMP2 Winners
With Tower being disqualified, the #22 United Autosports Oreca inherited the LMP2 class victory for the 24 Hours of Daytona. It is United Autosports' first Daytona victory and it was the first IMSA victory for three of its four drivers.
The fourth driver, James Allen, became a two-time Daytona class winner. Two years ago, Allen won in a photo finish for Proton Competition over the Crowdstrike Racing by APR group. Allen is the 143rd driver with multiple class victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
For Paul di Resta, Rasmus Lindh and Dan Goldburg, their first IMSA victories were all in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
The Consecutive Victories Era
We are living in the consecutive victories era of the 24 Hours of Daytona.
2019-2021: Wayne Taylor Racing
2022-2023: Meyer Shank Racing
2024-2025: Porsche Penske Motorsport
During this period, Renger van der Zande, Kamui Kobayashi, Hélio Castroneves, Tom Blomqvist, Simon Pagenaud and now Nasr have won consecutive races as drivers with Castroneves winning three consecutive.
We haven't even mentioned that Cadillac won in 2019 and 2020 before Acura bridged the WTR-MSR years with victories from 2021 to 2023 and now Porsche has won in consecutive years.
Either Porsche makes it a three consecutive triumph in 2026 or BMW wins and begins its own little run.
Giving Some Love to Laurens
We have spotlighted Tandy and Nasr, but the third driver in the #7 Porsche deserves some love.
Laurens Vanthoor has been on a hot streak and it should be recognized.
Last season, Vanthoor won the World Endurance Drivers' Champion with two victories in FIA World Endurance Championship competition. He also won the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2024. Now he has won the 24 Hours of Daytona, which goes along with his 2014 and 2020 Spa 24 Hours victories and he won the 2015 Nürburgring 24 Hour, meaning he is now one victory away from completing the "Grand Slam," but Vanthoor has already won the Dubai 24 Hour and he has even won the 24 Hours of Zolder...
So in a way Vanthoor has already done something greater than the "Grand Slam."
Well... They Were There
We did this last year, and it is worth bringing it back.
There might have been 234 drivers entered for the 24 Hours of Daytona, but unfortunately, not all of them got to participate in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Just because the car makes it to the grid does not mean you will get a shot behind the wheel. With four-driver lineups, a driver could go seven or eight hours before their first stint, plenty of time for things to go wrong and keep them out of the race. The box score will say they were there, but they never turned a lap.
Last year, nine drivers did not complete a lap in this race.
It is easiest to start with the car that finished last, and for the #63 Lamborghini, you are forgiven if didn't notice it was missing. Mirko Bortolotti did 34 laps in two stints before the engine expired. That means Edoardo Mortara, Daniil Kvyat and Romain Grosjean never got to complete a lap in the race, but it gets better.
Grosjean apparently left the track within minutes of the car pulling into the garage. Mortara was making his first Daytona appearance since 2013 when he won in GT with Alex Job Racing. That means though he will be counted as a participant in 2024, Mortara has not completed a lap in the 24 Hours of Daytona in over 12 years! And then there is Kvyat, who was making his Daytona debut! Which sounds bad, but there is good news that there is life after an inactive debut, and we will touch upon that shortly.
Somehow, all four drivers in the #75 Mercedes-AMG completed a lap despite finishing 60th out of 61 cars. Good for them.
Not so good for the car in 59th. The #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin was out about a half-hour after the #75 Mercedes-AMG’s race ended. Nicki Thiim did not get in the car. Andy Lally had only done 14 minutes and 40 seconds when the car broke down. Better than nothing but hardly any good, especially since this was announced as Lally final Daytona start.
Incredibly, the #007 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin and #9 Pfaff Lamborghini got all of their drivers in when the two cars collided and ultimately ended each other’s races. Roman De Angelis only ran for 16 minutes and 20 seconds, but at least he got to run.
Ben Hanley did not. With the #2 United Autosports Oreca caught in that restart accident, Hanley was the only driver yet to have done a stint in that entry.
The incredible thing is that is it. Five drivers did not complete a lap in this year's race. Of the 61 entires in this year's event, 54 of them ran for over 12 hours. Hanley's car did just over seven and a half hours. It is kind of unfortunate he did not get into the seat. Once you get past six hours, in all likelihood everyone will have been in the car at that point.
It hurts less that these five drivers are all professionals who have had full careers. It doesn't hurt as much that they didn't get to run in this race. Grosjean and Kvyat are Formula One veterans. They are good. Mortara has won the 24 Hours of Daytona before and won in a variety of categories since then. The same is true for Hanley, who won in LMP2 at Daytona in 2020. Thiim has a class victory at Le Mans and two world championships. They are all good. It stings but they aren't asking "what if" a week later.
What about the nine from last year?
To quickly run through the nine drivers from last year, eight were entered in this year's race. The one that wasn't was Scott Huffaker.
None of Mikkel Jensen, Charles Milesi and Hunter McElrea had a chance to run last year in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca. This year, all three returned to the #11 TDS Racing Oreca and turned laps. Last year was McElrea's Daytona debut, but he didn't turn his first race laps in the 24 Hours of Daytona until 3:40 p.m. ET on January 25, 2025.
Nicklas Nielsen and Matthieu Vaxivière each got to make laps in the #88 AF Corse Oreca after not running that car in 2024.
Paul di Resta went from not running a lap in the #22 United Autosports Oreca in 2024 to driving the car under the checkered flag to finish second on track in LMP2 in 2025, which was then promoted to first after post-race inspection!
Felix Rosenqvist also did not run a lap in the #22 United Autosports Oreca in 2024, but Rosenqvist got to drive for four hours and five minutes in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura as it finished second overall in 2025.
Finally, Jules Gounon was unfortunate not to run a lap in the #75 Mercedes-AMG in 2024. In 2025, Gounon was unfortunate to be the one behind the wheel when the #75 Mercedes-AMG broke down during the race after Gounon had driven for just over 50 minutes.
What I Actually Wanted to Write About!
After doing all that writing above and reading over it, I realized that what I wanted to mention in the first place was nearly omitted though it has been on my mind for the better part of two weeks!
The 24 Hours of Daytona might the last endurance race with wild combinations of drivers that feel more like fantasy lineups than reality. This was mostly seen in the LMP2 class this year.
The CrowdStrike Racing entry brought together Colton Herta, one of the best in IndyCar, Malthe Jakobsen, an up-and-coming LMP2 driver who is a race winner in the European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series, and Toby Sowery, an Indy Lights winner who is on the fringe of an IndyCar ride and has been impressive in sports cars.
Tower Motorsport had a four-time IndyCar champion (Bourdais) with one of the most consistent drivers at the LMP2 level (Job van Uitert) and a 22-year-old with limited Formula 4 success but who has done well in his early years in sports car racing (Sebastián Álvarez).
Inter Europol Competition brought together the defending IMSA LMP2 champion (Tom Dillmann), a Formula E champion and current Formula E championship leader (António Félix da Costa), last year's winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2, which was his Le Mans debut (Bijoy Garg) and a man who had not raced since 2011 (Jon Field).
And that is only three of the entries.
There was once a time rather random driver lineups were all over the place at Daytona, especially in the top class. As manufacturer support has increased and the privateer side has been contained to the pro-am nature of LMP2, we see these fantasy lineups come together in the secondary class, and it is still fun to watch.
It is the wild card every year at Daytona, and it isn't going away. GTP participation is going to be strictly limited. Top talent isn't getting the opportunities that once were available, but that hasn't stopped the likes of Herta, Bourdais, da Costa, Callum Ilott and Felipe Massa from showing up at Daytona each January. We are better off for their openness to compete in what is not the top class but a ruthlessly competitive class at that.
February Preview
From Daytona to Bathurst, a 12-hour race awaits us this weekend. Twenty-two drivers have made the trek from the Atlantic Coast of Florida to the oldest inland settlement in Australia.
Of those 22 Daytona drivers, they are spread among 11 of the 18 entries in the top class, Class A, meant for GT3 cars. Three entries are entirely made up of Daytona participants.
The #32 Team WRT BMW has the van der Linde brothers, Kelvin and Sheldon, paired with Augusto Farfus. The 75 Express group has kept Jules Gounon and Kenny Habul in the car while Lucas Stolz joins them after being a competitor last week. Gounon has the chance to become the first driver with four Bathurst 12 Hour victories. Habul and Stolz could each get their third. Meanwhile, Maro Engel and Mikaël Grenier go from 75 Express co-drivers to 75 Express competitors as Engel and Grenier will drive the #888 Mercedes-AMG Team GMR entry with Maxime Martin, who was a co-driver with Stolz last week in Daytona.
International flavor aside, the domestic talent is rather strong and it has a chance to defend its home turf.
Supercars champion Will Brown will be in the field in the #26 Arise Racing GT Ferrari. One of Brown's co-drivers will be the man who finished third in the Supercars championship, Chaz Mostert, with Ferrari driver Daniel Serra arriving from Daytona to fill out that lineup.
The top five from the 2024 Supercars championship will be competing at Mount Panorama this weekend.
Brown's Triple Eight Race Engineering teammate Broc Feeney will be there, but Feeney isn't a teammate this weekend. Feeney isn't even driving for the same manufacturer. Feeney will be in the #183 James Racing Audi with Ricardo Feller and Liam Talbot.
Cam Waters and Thomas Randle were fourth and fifth in Supercars last year, and they will share the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG with one of the best to ever driver around "The Mountain," seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner and two-time Bathurst 12 Hour winner Craig Lowndes.
Matt Campbell and Ayhancan Güven will look to defend their victory from last year, this time with Alessio Picariello in the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche. The only other Porsche in the field will be the #91 The Bend Manthey EMA Porsche with IMSA GTD Pro champion Laurin Heinrich, Le Mans LMGT3 class winners Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin, and Sam Shahin behind the wheel.
Other Events of Note in February
NASCAR races at Bowman Gray Stadium this weekend before racing the Daytona 500 in two weeks.
We will have the final two weekends of the Asian Le Mans Series, which will determine the final invitations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Australia hosts the Supercars opening weekend and the World Superbike opening weekend simultaneously, though at different venues (Sydney Motorsports Park and Phillip Island respectively).
The FIA World Endurance Championship opens on the final day of the month in Qatar.
