DP 60 Michael Shank Racing Oswaldo Negri Jr John Pew Road America 2012

GT 44 Magnus Racing Andy Lally John Potter

The 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona was a long-distance motor race for

sports cars A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

conforming to the regulations of the

Grand-Am Road Racing Grand-Am Road Racing or Grand-Am was an auto racing sanctioning body that was established in 1999 to organize road racing competitions in North America. Its primary focus was the Rolex Sports Car Series, an endurance racing championship series ...

series. The race was held over a duration of 24 hours, starting at 3:30pm on Saturday, January 28, finishing at 3:30pm the following day. The race was held on the sports car version of

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. In addition to NASC ...

, which includes only a portion of the NASCAR Superspeedway course and a loop of circuit which winds through the infield of the speedway. 2012 was the 50th running of the race which had begun as a three-hour duration sports car race in 1962. The race was also the opening round of the 2012 Rolex Sports Car Series season. A field of 14

Daytona Prototype 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, specificall ...

s took the start of the race along with a grid of 44 of the slower roadcar-based Grand Touring class cars. This race also was part of the inaugural North American Endurance Championship.

Qualifying

Pole position for the race was taken by British racing driver

Ryan Dalziel Ryan Dalziel ( ; born 12 April 1982), is a Scottish professional racing driver. Dalziel has seen the most success in his career in the United States, racing in the American Le Mans Series GT1 class and the Champ Car World Series, and winning t ...

driving the Starworks Motorsport run

Riley Technologies Riley Technologies LLC is an American auto racing constructor and team specializing in the design and manufacture of complete race cars, as well as prototype development for racing and manufacturing applications. In 2001, Bob Riley and son Bill, ...

Mk.XXVI Daytona Prototype sports car recording a lap time of 1:41.119. In the Grand Touring class, pole was claimed by the

Brumos Racing Brumos Racing was an automobile racing team based in Jacksonville, Florida. 24 Hours of Daytona wins Brumos has won the 24 Hours of Daytona four times. In 1973, Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood won with a Porsche Carrera RSR, they repeated in 19 ...

Porsche 911 GT3 Cup driven by American driver Andrew Davis.

Winners

The Michael Shank Racing entry of

A. J. Allmendinger Anthony James "A. J." Allmendinger (born December 16, 1981) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Kaulig Racing. Allmendinger's professi ...

, Justin Wilson, Oswaldo Negri Jr., and John Pew took victory in their No. 60 Riley Mk. XXVI Ford, completing 761 laps over the course of the 24-hour race. They enjoyed a spirited battle with the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley Mk. XXVI Ford of

Lucas Luhr Lucas Luhr (born 22 July 1979) is a German BMW factory racing driver, currently competing for BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the GTLM category of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. Early career Born in Mülheim-Kärlich, Luhr ...

Allan McNish Allan McNish (born 29 December 1969) is a British former racing driver, commentator, and journalist from Scotland. He is a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, most recently in 2013, as well as a three-time winner of the American Le Ma ...

Enzo Potolicchio Vicente "Enzo" Potolicchio (born 7 August 1968 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan racing driver and businessman, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship and Rolex Sports Car Series for Starworks Motorsport. He won the 2012 24 Hours of Le ...

, and Alex Popow, which led the most laps and posted the quickest time of the race, but suffered a minor accident in the 17th hour. In GT,

Magnus Racing Magnus Racing is an automobile racing team based in Tooele, Utah, currently competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The team was established in 2010 by John Potter and runs Acura NSX GT3 car in the series. History The team fin ...

earned its first-ever

Rolex Sports Car Series The Rolex Sports Car Series was the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It was a North American-based sports car series founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed ...

victory, with the lineup of

Richard Lietz Richard Lietz (born 17 December 1983 in Waidhofen an der Ybbs) is an Austrian professional racing driver and a Porsche Factory driver. He has competed in such series as American Le Mans Series, Formula 3 Euro Series and the Rolex Sports Car Seri ...

Andy Lally Andrew J. Lally (born February 11, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes full-time in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, driving the Audi R8 for Magnus Racing and previously part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, dr ...

René Rast René Rast (born 26 October 1986 in Minden) is a German professional racing driver and the 2017, 2019 and 2020 DTM champion. He previously drove for Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler in Formula E from 2019 to 2021 before Audi left the sport at the end o ...

, and John Potter in the No. 44

Porsche 911 GT3 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

Cup car. It was Lally's fourth Rolex 24 class victory, and the first for the other three drivers.

Race results

Class winners in bold.

References

{{24 Hours of Daytona 24 Hours of Daytona Daytona 24

Daytona Daytona refers to the city of Daytona Beach, Florida, or things named after it. Daytona may also refer to: Locations * Daytona Beach Shores, Florida * South Daytona, Florida * The Daytona Beach metropolitan area * Halifax area, also known as Da ...

Daytona 24