The 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona ran on Saturday and Sunday January 29–30, 2011 at the

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, about north of Orlando, Florida, Orlando. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race ...

was the 49th running of the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Flo ...

endurance race. The first race of the

2011 Rolex Sports Car Series season The 2011 Rolex Sports Car Series season was the twelfth season of Grand-Am's premier series.The season began with the Rolex 24 at Daytona on January 29 and finished with the EMCO Gears Classic at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on September 17 ...

, it was broadcast on

Speed Channel Speed was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as a ...

, with fourteen hours of live coverage, in addition to a considerable attendance.

Qualifying

Pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

for the race was won by

Jörg Bergmeister Jörg Bergmeister (born 13 February 1976 in Leverkusen) is a former racing driver from Germany and an ambassador of Porsche. His late father, Willi Bergmeister, owned a workshop and dealership where Michael Schumacher learned his trade as a ca ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, driving the #45

Daytona Prototype A Daytona Prototype was a type of sports prototype racing car developed specifically for the Grand-Am Road Racing, Grand American Road Racing Association's Rolex Sports Car Series as their top class of car, which replaced their main prototype rac ...

Flying Lizard Motorsports The Flying Lizard Motorsports group is a motorsport team from Sonoma, California, formed by Seth Neiman in early 2003. The team competed in the full American Le Mans Series season, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. T ...

, a

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. The team currently fields the N ...

chassis powered by a

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

engine, with a lap time of 1 minute 40.099 seconds. Pole for the

Grand Touring A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving with performance and luxury. The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with either a two-seat or a 2+2 arrangement ...

category was won by

Dominik Farnbacher Dominik Farnbacher (born 26 September 1984 in Ansbach) is a German sports car racing driver, and currently an SRT factory driver, driving an SRT Viper GTS-R in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. Career After beginning his career in karting ...

in the #66

The Racer's Group The Racer's Group, or TRG, is a WeatherTech SportsCar Championship racing team located in Petaluma, California, owned by Kevin Buckler and his wife Debra. TRG has competed professionally in road racing since 1995. The team formerly competed in NA ...

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 model series (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in ) is a family of German two-door, high performance Rear-engine design, rear-engine sports cars, introduced in September 1964 by Porsche, Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. Now in it ...

, with a lap time of 1 minute 48.781 seconds.

Results

Winning the race overall was the Daytona Prototype team of

Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization competing in the NTT IndyCar Series. They have formerly competed in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, Global Rally ...

, with drivers

Scott Pruett Scott Donald Pruett (born March 24, 1960) is an American former racing driver who has competed in numerous disciplines of the sport. In the 1980s, Pruett established himself as a top sports car racer, winning two IMSA GTO, and three Trans-Am ...

Memo Rojas Guillermo "Memo" Rojas Jr. (born August 18, 1981) is a Mexican former race car driver. Successful in American sports car racing, Rojas is a four-time series champion in the Rolex Sports Car Series, a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona, ...

Graham Rahal Graham Robert Rahal ( ; born January 4, 1989) is an American race car driver and small business owner. He currently races in the IndyCar Series with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, a team partially owned by his father Bobby Rahal, the winner of ...

, and

Joey Hand Joseph Alan Hand (born February 10, 1979) is an American professional racing driver who competes in sports car racing as a Ford factory driver. A former champion of the Star Mazda Series, Hand is the co-winner of the 2011 24 Hours of Daytona dri ...

driving the #01 Riley & Scott-

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

defeating Chip Ganassi Racing's second team, consisting of IndyCar drivers

Scott Dixon Scott Ronald Dixon (born 22 July 1980) is a New Zealand racing driver who races the 9 Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) Dallara DW12-Honda car in the IndyCar Series. He is a six-time drivers' champion of the IndyCar Series, having claimed the title in ...

and

Dario Franchitti George Dario Marino Franchitti (born 19 May 1973) is a British motorsport commentator and retired motor racing driver from Scotland. Franchitti won the IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011; the Indianapolis 500 in ...

, and Sprint Cup teammates

Jamie McMurray James Christopher McMurray (born June 3, 1976), nicknamed "Jamie Mac", is an American former professional stock car racing driver and currently an analyst for ''Fox NASCAR'' and CW. He raced in the NASCAR Cup Series on a full-time basis from 2003 ...

and

Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (; born 20 September 1975) is a Colombian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to , IndyCar between 1999 and 2022, and the NASCAR Cup Series between 2006 and 2024. Montoya won seven Formula One Grand ...

in the #02 Riley & Scott-BMW by just over two seconds in a one-lap sprint following a late

caution flag Racing flags are traditionally used in auto racing and similar motorsports to indicate track conditions and to communicate important messages to drivers. Typically, the starter, sometimes the grand marshal of a race, waves the flags atop a flag ...

. The win was Pruett's fourth overall victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the fourth of four major auto racing wins by Ganassi in the last year, following victories in the

2010 Daytona 500 The 2010 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The 52nd Daytona 500, it was held on February 14, 2010, in Daytona Beach, Florida, at Daytona International Speedway, before a crowd of about 175,000 atte ...

2010 Indianapolis 500 The 94th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 30, 2010. It was the 15th Indy 500 sanctioned by the Indy Racing League, and was the premier event of the 2010 IndyCar Series season, 2010 ...

and

2010 Brickyard 400 The 2010 Brickyard 400, the 17th running of the event, was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on July 25, 2010, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana. Contested over 160 laps, it was the twentieth race of the ...

; co-driver Rahal's victory came 30 years after his father,

Bobby Rahal Robert Woodward Rahal ( ; born January 10, 1953) is an American racing driver and motorsports executive. As a driver, he won three championships and 24 races in the CART open-wheel series, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500. As co-owner of R ...

, won the race in 1981. The GT division victory was claimed by

, the #67 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup driven by

Andy Lally Andrew Joseph Lally (born February 11, 1975) is an American former professional auto racing driver who currently serves as the president for the Trans Am Series. He competed full-time in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, driving the Audi R ...

, Spencer Pumpelly,

Brendan Gaughan William Brendan Gaughan (born July 10, 1975) is an American former professional racing driver who has competed in off-road racing, off-road and stock car racing, stock cars. He is the grandson of Las Vegas Valley, Vegas gaming pioneer Jackie Gaug ...

Wolf Henzler Wolfgang Henzler (born 5 April 1975) is a former Germans, German Porsche in motorsport, Porsche factory racing driver. He began racing in 1991 with a win in the German Junior Karting, Kart championship. Born in Nürtingen, Baden-Württemberg, he ...

, and Steven Bertheau winning by a margin of one lap.

Patrick Dempsey Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and racing driver best known for playing neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy'' (2005–15; 2020–21). He is also known for his leading man romantic film roles, such ...

, a television actor, placed third in the GT category in the #40

Mazda RX-8 The Mazda RX-8 is a sports car manufactured by Japanese automobile manufacturer Mazda between 2003 and 2012. It was first shown in 2001 at the North American International Auto Show#2001, North American International Auto Show. It is the direct s ...

. Although there were no serious accidents during the race, dense

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenc ...

in the early morning hours resulted in a caution period lasting nearly three hours.

Race results

Class winners in bold.

References

{{24 Hours of Daytona 24 Hours of Daytona

Daytona Daytona may refer to: Locations * Daytona Beach, Florida * Daytona Beach Shores, Florida * South Daytona, Florida * The Daytona Beach metropolitan area * Halifax area, also known as Daytona, the region around Daytona Beach Motor racing * Dayto ...