24H Daytona: Strong Swiss quintet 🎥

Simon Trummer sits in one of the fastest cars ever. As reported, the man from Thun is driving a Cadillac in the premier DPi class this season. Because the opposing teams have more experience with these Daytona prototypes and some are also somewhat better positioned in terms of driving, Trummer can only expect limited chances.

Stephen Simpson, one of his three team partners, qualified the Cadillac DPi for the race in ninth place on the grid. So there is still room for improvement from the previous positions in practice.

Simon Trummer: "Anything is possible in a 24-hour race. We'll certainly be closer to the front than in the practice sessions, but I don't count us among the favorites."

Last year, Trummer achieved his best result of the season with JDC-Miller Motorsports at the 24 Hours of Daytona. He definitely wants to top this sixth place - if not this weekend, then at one of the other races in the IMSA Sports Car Championship.

Beautiful memories from Fässler and Ineichen
The three Swiss drivers involved in the GT categories have the better chance of making the podium and winning their classes. First and foremost, Marcel Fässler with Corvette Racing in the manufacturer-only GT-LM. Although his car is only ninth on the grid in the class, this does not diminish his chances. Three years ago, Fässler captured one of his most valuable victories away from Le Mans with his regular partners of several years, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner.

Rolf Ineichen was able to recreate this feeling last year when he won the GTD class with Grasser Racing and achieved his greatest success to date. The team is fielding the Evo version of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 at Daytona. Ineichen's teammates are his ADAC GT regular Christian Engelhart, factory driver Mirko Bortolotti and Dutchman Rik Breukens. The professionals left qualifying to the fast Lucerne gentleman driver, who put an exclamation mark on the strongly contested class with the fifth-best time.

In 15th place in the GT3/GTD class, the new Audi R8 LMS from Montaplast by Land Motorsport will start the race with Ricardo "Ricky" Feller as one of the four drivers. Like 2017 and 2018 Jeffrey Schmidt, team boss Wolfgang Land hereby gives another young Swiss a great chance. In terms of speed, the German team was already good for victory in previous years.

Simona de Silvestro in the Honda women's team
The famous speedway in Florida is new territory for Simona de Silvestro. The 24 Hours of Daytona is also her first GT endurance race - a bit much all at once.

The woman from Vaud forms a pure and very fast women's team with Brazilian Ana Beatriz, Briton Katherine Legge and Dane Christina Nielsen on an Acura (Honda) NSX GT3. Beatriz achieved the best class time in the pre-test, but she could not confirm it in the official qualifying. Her Honda will start from P11 among 23 competitors.

Stars from A to Z
Special attention will also be paid to two former Formula 1 drivers. Fernando Alonso is now also aiming for overall victory at Daytona in a Cadillac. The Spaniard conquered Le Mans at the first attempt with Toyota in 2018, but the competition is now somewhat stronger and more balanced.

On pole position is the Mazda DPi from Mazda Team Joest, which Oliver Jarvis qualified. Also on this car are the Germans Timo Bernhard and René Rast as well as Tristan Nunez.

The leg-amputated Alex Zanardi drives one of the two factory BMW M8 GTEs, which had to be adapted to his handicap. How he steers, shifts gears and brakes with his right hand is explained in the following video from night practice at the beginning of January.

A total of 179 drivers from all over the world will be competing in 47 sports cars and GTs. The race starts on Saturday, January 26, at 13:40 local time (20:40 CET). It will be broadcast live outside the USA and Canada on the internet on imsa.com.

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