Whirlwind of Driver/Team Announcements Hype 2025 To New Heights
2025 can't come soon enough! Give it to us now!
All last week there was an absolute tempest of breaking news and announcements that flew across the racing wire, primarily in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship and even *more* specifically for the 2025 Role 24 Hours at Daytona.
You can take your pick from the aforementioned litter to choose from as teams continued to finalize their lineups for the Rolex or announced an entire manufacturer change altogether, and we opted to recap the biggest drops in one clean, easy to read post. You're welcome everyone.
In no particular order -
TF Sport with NASCAR Submits Legendary Entry to the Rolex
BAM! How's that for a driver lineup!? Out of nowhere TF Sport and Trackhouse Racing announced a joint-venture into the 24 with an absolutely legendary driver lineup to go with it - Ben Keating, Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch will share the No. 91 Corvette Z06 GT3.R at Daytona in hopes of securing a GTD Pro victory. That lineup is a Thanos' Gauntlet-level of talent acquired to go at it for the big dance, and the idea of seeing the V8 Supercar Mean Machine himself SVG going behind the wheel at an IMSA event is almost too good to believe.
Pfaff Motorsports Announces Move to Lamborghini
In a move they've teased for weeks on their social pages, the rumors yet again proved to be true as the Toronto-based Pfaff Motorsports announced that they've ditched the McLaren 720S Evo to partner up with Lamborghini and the Huracán GT3 Evo 2. Seeing Pfaff run with a McLaren never felt right from the moment the news dropped and it was essentially watching your buddy break up with a girl that everyone likes to instead date a trashy, noisy, obnoxious chick that always finds a way to ruin the good time we all want to have. They listed their McLaren for sale a month ago and we give them credit, they're recognizing that things just weren't working out and made another change in an effort to correct their recent form. Can they find more success with the Huracán in 2025? Let's see.
Kevin Magnussen Will Race For BMW In GTP
BMW is putting their money where they're giant Kidney grilles are. They've unified their driver lineups across IMSA and the WEC by agreeing to share eight drivers across four cars - two apiece - in North America and on the world tour, and it gives former F1 talent Kevin Magnussen the ability to jump aboard one of the RLL M Hybrid V8s for the season opener in Daytonga. BMW are in need of a serious boost in terms of scoring consistent podiums with their LMDh machine as they enter Year 3 for GTP and Year 2 over in the Hypercar class for the WEC. Imagine K-Mag piloting the Beemer to an overall race victory at the Rolex? We just need the car to stay on the track long enough to see it happen.
Dane Cameron Lands Full-Season Gig with Spike and AO Racing
One of the first laws of motorsport racing is 'Believe Every Rumor You See or Hear' and yet another one came through that was first reported back in late October - reigning GTP champion Dane Cameron has landed a full-season seat in the LMP2 ranks with Spike and AO Racing. It marks the second high-profile prototype driver to make the leap over (down to?) LMP2 as Sebastian Bourdais linked up with Tower Motorsports to run the 2025 campaign alongside John Farano. It's a massive get for AO Racing to pair one of the best drivers on the entire grid alongside PJ Hyett in an attempt to turn all of those pole positions that Hyett won into race wins and a hopeful class championship.
Pipo Derani To DXDT Racing
Pipo's next grand adventure will come with Hyundai and the incoming Genesis LMDh program for the 2026 WEC season, yet in the meantime he will be taking a spin with the newest IMSA team on the grid, DXDT Racing, for the Rolex. Derani joins Charlie "Don't Call Me Clint" Eastwood, Alec Udell and Salih Yoluç to round out the four-man squad. DXDT Racing dominated in GT World Challenge America last season and nearly snatched away the Pro-Am title, and after years in the circuit they've committed to a full-season in the GTD ranks for 2025.
DragonSpeed Secures Full-Season GTD Pro Entry with Albert Costa First On Board
IMSAs original roster announcement for 2025 came all the way back in mid-October yet a handful of changes occurred since that point. One of those changes sees DragonSpeed land a full-season entry for next year, giving GTD Pro their only Ferrari 296 GT3 on the starting grid. DragonSpeed have made their bones with their LMP2 machinery for the large majority of their lifespan, yet late in the 2024 IMSA campaign they entered their Ferrari 296 into the GTD ranks at Indianapolis and then immediately elevated to GTD Pro for the season finale at Petit Le Mans. DragonSpeed also announced that they've snatched Albert Costa away from Conquest Racing to serve as their first driver in the stable.
LATE BREAKING - SAMANTHA TAN LANDS BMW M4 SEAT IN NEW DXDT CLASS
Breaking late and as we were in the middle of creating this blog - it was announced that Samantha Tan will be making her jump into the IMSA circuit via a GTDX entry in the VP Racing SportsCar challenge for 2025. The VP Challenge will undergo another tweak to their makeup in 2025 with the introduction of the new DXDT class - Grand Touring Daytona X - to join alongside the LMP3 and GSX classes. The DXDT class will introduce GT3 cars to the circuit and will likely tip the total grid of entries to over 30 cars. After putting in some serious work through the GT Series ranks, the entry will serve as Tan's first foray into the IMSA scene for her career. With her marketing power and her ability to compete at the top of the grid against fellow competition the ST Racing train will keep chugging along until a full-time seat is secured in the GTD ranks, it's only a matter of time.
Phew.
What did we miss?
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