Raging into the darkness, brake discs aglow in purple, exhausts firing blue flames rearward because the palms of the clock spin previous midnight and preserve rotating by means of one other 12 hours till 24 hours of endurance racing cruelty is full.

Weeks earlier than NASCAR followers flock to Daytona Seaside for its storied 500-mile oval contest, the Worldwide Motor Sports activities Affiliation (IMSA), holds its annual celebration of heartbreak and glory for 2 straight days on the Rolex 24 At Daytona. It is considered one of one, a significant occasion not like anything on the U.S. sporting panorama — held this weekend, to be exact — and it is on the rise.

IMSA’s pageant of fatigue is run on the speedway’s “roval” configuration, which makes use of a few of the huge oval’s inventory automotive corners and a highway course constructed into the infield that mixes for an seemingly endless lap that spans 3.56 miles. Fastidiously crafted groups of drivers struggle to take the lead — and to stay lucid from the waving of the inexperienced flag on Saturday at 1:40 p.m. ET to the checkered at 1:40 p.m. on Sunday — utilizing unique sports activities vehicles which can be punished with out pause, all for our leisure.

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The collection debuted its high-tech hybrid Grand Touring Prototypes (GTP) final yr, and because of the newfound curiosity surrounding GTP, IMSA obtained an considerable improve in attendance and its tv viewers. Probably the best co-sign for IMSA’s surging recognition has been throughout the auto business as 18 automotive producers have aligned themselves with the collection to race and promote themselves in entrance of those that are inclined to know the cylinder counts and cubic capacities of every motor in motion.

The unabashed positivity continues in that space with Ford’s return to IMSA, with its new factory-run Mustang GT3s, the place it has age-old in-state rival Normal Motors bringing its new Corvette Z06 GT3 to wage a head-to-head battle within the collection’ GTD Professional class. Splitting the auto titans is the boutique British producer McLaren, the car-making arm of the legendary Method One group, which has entered the scrum with its 720S GT3 supercar.

If 2023 was the yr of IMSA GTP, 2024 is presenting its followers with an unheralded array of GT equipment to like because the scrap amongst Chevrolet, Ford and McLaren additionally contains Acura, Aston Martin BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche.

“Timing is all the pieces, proper?” Ford Efficiency Motorsport world director Mark Rushbrook tells ESPN. “As GTs are coming again collectively, meaning much more power and focus for GT3, which is sweet for everyone. Everyone’s going to profit from this. After which the timing is absolutely good with our all-new seventh-generation Mustang for the highway. In order we noticed that creating on the highway automotive facet and the chance on the race automotive facet to have Mustangs racing in every single place in GT3, it was clearly the correct resolution to make.”

With 59 entries and squads of three to 4 drivers per entry, the Rolex 24 has the texture of an Iron Man marathon held at 200 mph. It additionally ranks as IMSA’s model of the Tremendous Bowl, however in reverse. The 2-day race at Daytona is the primary on its calendar, kicking off a season that includes 11 whole occasions, crowning its champions in October on the 10-hour Petit Le Mans spherical. As such, Daytona attracts a few of racing’s greatest names from all factions of the game; greater than half of the 27 full-time IndyCar drivers, together with its hottest names like Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden, are within the area.

A Method One reunion of kinds from the 2000s and 2010 can also be taking place this weekend in IMSA with 2009 world champion Jenson Button, 2008 runner-up Felipe Massa and F1 veterans Romain Grosjean, Paul Di Resta and Marcus Ericsson unfold among the many throngs of drivers who’ll chase the prized award for profitable every of the GTP, LMP2, GTD Professional and GTD courses: new Rolex Daytona watches.

“It attracts star energy, for certain,” says Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura GTP driver Jordan Taylor, who will share a automotive with Button, IndyCar ace Colton Herta and Switzerland’s Louis Deletraz. “Previously we have had [four-time NASCAR champion] Jeff Gordon, [Indy 500 winner Ryan] Hunter-Reay, [F1 legend Rubens] Barrichello, [two-time F1 title winner Fernando] Alonso. It is loopy to have these sorts of drivers within the group. For us as sports activities automotive drivers, it is cool to have them are available.”

For Button, the ocean of driving expertise contained throughout the Daytona occasion took a second to course of.

“It is 220 drivers or one thing that is racing,” he says. “It is rather a lot! I come from F1, which has acquired 20 drivers and you’re feeling very particular, and all of the sudden, you are considered one of 220 drivers …”

Like Button, whose abilities are additionally discovered on ESPN’s F1 broadcasts, Canadian IndyCar and sports activities automotive ace James Hinchcliffe has additionally been busy lately as a driver analyst for F1. Signed to race for Pfaff Motorsports in a GTD Professional McLaren, Hinchcliffe has been up near witness F1’s leap in worldwide recognition and sees just a few parallels to the place IMSA is headed on the house entrance.

“Lots of momentum, lots of positivity right here proper now,” he says. “I believe final yr was a very huge turning level for IMSA with the eye and the fandom that was gained with hybrid GTP vehicles popping out and bringing with them the electrification that is a giant take care of the automotive business proper now.”

Much like the in a single day portion of the race the place darkness dominates the competition, American sports activities automotive racing spent far too lengthy within the shadows, a distinct segment participant among the many extra heralded collection. Fortunately, that is additionally altering.

“It appears to be a giant take care of the followers as properly,” Hinchcliffe provides. “We simply had the Roar Earlier than The 24, which is a glorified take a look at day, and the climate was not best, and there have been nearly as many followers right here as there will probably be this Friday for race week. It is unbelievable. I believe IMSA’s on an enormous trajectory and upswing proper now and it is nice to see.”