This yr’s Rolex 24 at Daytona can be remembered for a lot of issues, however not all of them have been written into the script. Sure, it delivered the standard opening-round drama that has come to outline IMSA’s world all-star race, however it was additionally formed by one thing far much less predictable. In a single day, dense fog engulfed Daytona Worldwide Speedway, trapping the sphere behind the security automobile for six hours and 33 minutes, a interval so lengthy it started to really feel surreal. Even by endurance racing requirements, it was extraordinary.
But neither the climate nor the wait was sufficient to derail the aggressive story on the entrance. Porsche Penske Motorsport emerged victorious as soon as once more, the #7 Porsche 963 of Julien Andlauer, Laurin Heinrich and Felipe Nasr securing a 3rd consecutive Daytona win for the group. And crucially, the circumstances did nothing to dampen enthusiasm trackside. If something, they amplified it. Organisers confirmed report attendance throughout the weekend, a reminder that Daytona’s attraction extends far past uninterrupted green-flag working.
I used to be at Daytona with BMW M Motorsport, hosted in what was, with out query, probably the most spectacular hospitality within the paddock. BMW’s Champions Membership occupied prime actual property reverse the start-finish line, straight going through the large, unapologetic “World Middle of Racing” signal that looms over the primary grandstand. Wrapped in M branding, it provided the perfect rooftop seats in the home, an open bar, and an American buffet of heroic proportions. There was even wonderful espresso, simply the perfect for ten miles in any course, though maybe not sufficient to hassle a European barista.
It was spectacular, beneficiant, and deeply gratifying. However the reality is, the magic of the Rolex 24 has by no means actually lived within the fancy seats, the free-flowing champagne, or the economic portions of mac and cheese. The true story of Daytona has at all times been occurring elsewhere.
By mid-afternoon, the infield already felt much less like a part of a circuit and extra like a short lived settlement. Youngsters sat excessive on their mother and father’ shoulders, outsized ear defenders clamped over tiny heads, eyes mounted on the blur of color and noise passing simply metres away. Pushchairs have been parked beside cool containers. Canine slept beneath folding chairs. This was endurance racing not as spectacle, however as a shared household outing.
The distinction was gloriously American. Tesla Cybertrucks sat alongside Rolls-Royces, each parked subsequent to huge RVs that seemed able to crossing continents. Tents spilled out round them, linked by extension leads, fairy lights and tarpaulins. Between every plot, campfires crackled, barbecues smoked, and makeshift wood buildings had been assembled to create vantage factors no ticket might purchase. Some have been crude, others impressively engineered, all of them occupied.
That sense of belonging was all over the place when you began in search of it. Homeowners’ golf equipment arrived in power, staking out their very own corners of the infield and grandstands. Teams from the Porsche Membership of America blended simply with clusters of Mazda Miata house owners, whereas Corvettes appeared in overwhelming numbers, proudly representing America’s sports activities automobile in its religious residence. BMW M was out in power too, from fashionable vehicles to older icons, reinforcing the sensation that Daytona is as a lot a gathering of fans as it’s a race weekend. All of it felt natural relatively than curated, model loyalty expressed by dialog, shared meals and shared vantage factors relatively than polished shows.
Wandering by it, you have been by no means nameless for lengthy. Individuals requested the place I used to be from, what had introduced me to Daytona, whether or not I used to be having fun with myself. Once I instructed them it was my first Rolex 24, the response was at all times the identical. Smiles, handshakes, real pleasure that somebody new was seeing it for the primary time. There was no cynicism, no gatekeeping, simply pleasure. It felt welcoming in a means few main motorsport occasions handle.
As sundown approached, the ambiance shifted once more. Each infield grandstand stuffed. Households, {couples}, teams of buddies, all ages and backgrounds, shoulder to shoulder as the sunshine softened and the vehicles started to glow beneath the fading sky. Daytona has a means of pulling everybody in at that second. The race settles into its rhythm, and the gang leans nearer.
That sense of connection extends to the vehicles themselves. Daytona crowds have favourites, they usually put on these loyalties proudly. In GTD Professional, the primary attraction was AO Racing’s vivid inexperienced Porsche 911, universally often called “Rexy”. Youngsters noticed it lengthy earlier than it arrived, adults smiled each time it thundered previous, and its merchandise was all over the place – hats, hoodies, flags – as if it have been a beloved character relatively than a race automobile. The theatre continued within the paddock and fan areas, the place dinosaur-suited mascots leaned absolutely into the joke, posing for images and delighting crowds of all ages.
That character prolonged past GT racing too. In LMP2, AO Racing’s gold-liveried #99 Oreca 07, “Spike”, carried its personal following into the Rolex 24, racing in celebratory colors after securing the 2025 championship. Collectively, Rexy and Spike gave the infield heroes to latch onto throughout lessons, proof that endurance racing at Daytona is as a lot about character and connection as it’s outright velocity.
One second, greater than another, stayed with me. Standing inside these huge, 31-degree banked bowl corners because the vehicles charged previous felt nearly unreal. The size of Daytona solely actually is smart if you end up down there, trying up at concrete partitions that appear to lean in on you. I had ridden round them on Friday afternoon in a BMW M3, and even then it was intimidating. At round 140 mph, simply centimetres from the white wall, it felt precarious and faintly absurd, the banking pulling at your senses in a means no flat circuit ever does.
Watching the race from that very same vantage level later, it was unimaginable to not marvel at what the drivers have been coping with. Doing these speeds at the hours of darkness, then within the fog, headlights flaring and the solar often breaking by straight right into a bug-splattered windscreen, borders on insanity. It’s one factor to grasp Daytona on paper, one other solely to face inside it and really feel the rate, the noise, and the publicity. That perspective modified how I noticed the evening that adopted.
By round 10pm, each doable vantage level was teeming with individuals. Grandstands, grassy banks, the roofs of RVs, these improvised platforms constructed earlier within the day. Conversations paused as engines echoed by the nightfall, after which, proper on cue, fireworks lit up the sky. For a couple of minutes, the race turned a backdrop. Individuals cheered. Youngsters pointed skywards. Music spilled from a dozen instructions directly.
Then the fog rolled in.
Shortly earlier than midnight, cloud cowl thickened over the circuit. At first it felt manageable, one other Daytona quirk, however circumstances worsened steadily. By 12.15am, the security automobile was deployed, and it could not peel away once more till after dawn. Greater than six and a half hours later, 121 consecutive laps had been accomplished at lowered velocity, the longest steady warning interval within the occasion’s historical past. The vehicles by no means stopped circulating.
“I’ve by no means been so bored behind the wheel,” admitted Connor Zilisch, who drove the #31 Cadillac for 4 hours behind the security automobile.
And but, the ambiance barely faltered. Fires burned longer. Individuals wrapped themselves in blankets. Conversations drifted. Some slept, others wandered, drawn again to the fence at three or 4 within the morning, espresso in hand, eyes drained however spirits intact. The race was nonetheless there, glowing faintly by the mist, a relentless presence relatively than the only focus.
As soon as the fog lifted, Daytona did what Daytona at all times does. The crowds surged again, and officers confirmed a report attendance earlier than the ultimate hour. True to custom, the race constructed to a end that underlined simply how aggressive fashionable IMSA has grow to be. All 4 lessons remained in competition deep into the ultimate laps, margins measured in seconds relatively than minutes after a full day and evening of racing.
It additionally felt like a snapshot of a broader second for motorsport in the US. IMSA is booming, and Daytona makes that unimaginable to disregard. Producer involvement is deeper than it has been in years, grids are full, and the crowds now not really feel like a novelty headline however an expectation. There’s a confidence to the sequence now, one which feels world but grounded, severe but accessible. Endurance racing, as soon as area of interest, is embedded in American sporting tradition once more, and IMSA sits proper on the centre of it.
That depth was mirrored completely within the GTD Professional class, the place BMW claimed a exceptional victory in opposition to the chances. Northern Eire’s Dan Harper, alongside Max Hesse, Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi, took the win within the #1 BMW M4 run by Paul Miller Racing, having began from the very again of the grid after a qualifying disqualification for a tyre infringement. It was a drive outlined by persistence, restoration and perception.
When racing resumed after the fog delay, the race successfully reset right into a six-hour dash. A superbly judged closing pit cease with simply over an hour remaining put Harper into the lead, a place he wouldn’t relinquish. After 24 hours, the margin was simply 2.223 seconds over the #75 Mercedes.
“I can’t imagine it, what a race,” Harper wrote afterwards. “It was a giant problem to try to win from the again of the grid, however the entire #1 crew produced an ideal efficiency and we by no means stopped believing we might do it.
However these are the small print you may learn anyplace.
What stays with you is the whole lot else. The youngsters asleep on shoulders as engines howl previous. The supercars and luxurious limousines parked beside RVs and tents. The campfires, the barbecues, the fireworks, the strangers who grow to be neighbours for a weekend. The sense that the race belongs as a lot to the individuals round it as to the drivers contained in the vehicles.
That’s the reason the Rolex 24 endures. Not simply as a race, however as a spot.
