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By: IMSA | January 17, 2019 10:38 AM Over the course of 24 hours, NBC Sports will utilize 17 of its IMSA, NASCAR, and INDYCAR commentators, analysts and reporters on-site for its inaugural presentation of the 57th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona from Daytona International Speedway starting Saturday, Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN. Beginning this season, NBC Sports is the exclusive home of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA).Continuous 24-hour coverage from the iconic Daytona International Speedway will feature a rotating cast of commentators, analysts and reporters, headlined by NBC Sports’ lead IMSA commentating team of play-by-play voice Leigh Diffey, former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver A.J. Allmendinger (analyst), and former IMSA GT driver and analyst Calvin Fish (analyst).“There is no better spectacle in U.S. racing over a 24-hour period than this event with these drivers, who have incredible storylines,” said Sam Flood, Executive Producer and President of Production, NBC Sports. “From the all-female IMSA team to Alex Zanardi racing on U.S. soil again to our very commentators driving in the race, we couldn’t ask for a better way to launch our partnership with IMSA.”NASCAR driver-turned-analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. joins analyst Steve Letarte and host Krista Voda inside the “Peacock Pit Box,” a state-of-the-art remote studio set designed to bring viewers closer to the action. Built within a traditional pit box frame, the “Peacock Pit Box” will be set up along pit road.An additional broadcast booth comprised of NASCAR on NBC lead announcer Rick Allen, INDYCAR on NBC analysts Paul Tracy and Townsend Bell, and Brian Till will be featured throughout the weekend. Bell will compete in all rounds of the upcoming IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, while Allmendinger will participate in IMSA’s endurance races. Both will race in the Rolex 24.NASCAR on NBC reporters Marty Snider, Dave Burns, Kelli Stavast and Parker Kligerman will join INDYCAR on NBC reporters Kevin Lee and Jon Beekhuis to share in pit road duties. In addition, Rutledge Wood will showcase stories around the Daytona International Speedway.*Subject to changeCoverage from Daytona begins Thursday, Jan. 24, with a special IMSA preview show, which features a sit-down interview with driver and Paralympian Alex Zanardi, who is scheduled to race in the Rolex 24. In 2001, Zanardi lost both of his legs in an accident at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Klettwitz, Germany, and has since gone on to win two Paralympic gold medals in Para-cycling, most recently at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio.Additionally, Earnhardt Jr. recounts racing the 2001 Rolex 24 with his late father, when the two split time driving the No. 3 Corvette C5-R as part of an interview with NBCSports.com lead motorsports writer Nate Ryan. Thursday’s coverage continues with live qualifying from 3-5 p.m. ET on NBCSN. Ryan will lead extensive digital coverage throughout the week on MotorSportsTalk, NBCSports.com’s vertical dedicated to open-wheel and sports car racing. IMSA ON NBCSPORTS.COM AND THE NBC SPORTS APPNBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app — NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs — will provide live streaming coverage of the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series via “TV Everywhere,” giving consumers additional value to their subscription service, and making high quality content available to MVPD customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms.NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app are powered by Playmaker Media and available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire.

By: Marshall Pruett January 18, 2019 3:24 PM The throwback IMSA liveries continue to come in as Starworks Motorsport joins the festivities with a paint scheme borrowed from Audi’s unbeatable 1989 IMSA GTO quattro.The No. 88 Starworks Audi R8 LMS GT3 will celebrate the German brand’s iconic colors and striping pattern found on a number of its cars in the 1980s and early 1990s. At present, team owner Peter Baron says the 1989 GTO livery is only planned for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, but other classic looks from Audi’s time competing in LMP1, GTs, and tin-tops are possibilities at the remaining endurance rounds.Starworks joins Acura Team Penske, CORE autosport, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, and Riley Motorsports in the historic livery game as a way to honor IMSA on its 50th anniversary.

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By: IMSA | January 16, 2019 1:06 PM For the second consecutive year, IMSA will host the “IMSA Twenty-Four Premier” at ONE DAYTONA from 6-8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Jan. 23. The event kicks off fan activities around the 57th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 26-27

at Daytona International Speedway.The Twenty-Four Premier allows fans to get up close to Rolex 24 At Daytona race cars and meet superstar drivers free of charge. ONE DAYTONA – a premium retail, dining and entertainment destination located directly across International

Speedway Blvd. from Daytona International Speedway, features numerous shops and restaurants, Cobb Luxury Theatres and one Marriott hotel with another planned to open in the spring.“ONE DAYTONA will provide a great backdrop to kick off the Rolex 24 At Daytona festivities,”

Daytona International Speedway President Chip Wile said. “From the drivers and cars to the restaurants and shops, sports car fans will get their first taste of what will be another incredible Rolex 24 in a unique setting.”“Last year’s inaugural IMSA Twenty-Four Premier was

extremely successful, and this year’s edition is shaping up to be even better,” added IMSA Vice President, Marketing, David Pettit. “ONE DAYTONA has become a popular entertainment hub since its opening slightly more than a year ago, and it’s the perfect host for the Twenty-

Four Premier. We expect another great turnout as we head into what will be a Rolex 24 At Daytona and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season for the ages.”This year’s event will serve as a kick off for IMSA’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. Numerous race cars

from IMSA’s history – including a 1983 March 83G “Blue Thunder,” 1984 Porsche 962, 1973 Chevrolet Corvette and 1985 Peerless Chevrolet Camaro – will join several present-day race cars that will participate in the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona.Among the current WeatherTech

Championship race cars expected are the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R, the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, the No. 50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, a Mazda Team Joest RT24-P DPi car, the No. 25 BMW Team RLL GTE and the No. 67 Ford Chip

Ganassi Ford GT from the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class, and several GT Daytona (GTD) race cars including the No. 12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, the No. 44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3, the No. 71 P1 Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, the No. 73 Park

Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.Another highlight of the event will be a Fan Forum hosted by IMSA Radio announcer John Hindhaugh. Drivers expected include Jordan Taylor, Fernando Alonso, Renger van der Zande, Kamui

Kobayashi, Jan Magnussen, Andy Lally and Patrick Long. The list of participating drivers and race cars is subject to change.The official safety car for the 2019 Rolex 24 – which will carry a prominent livery from IMSA’s history – also will be unveiled during the event. Juncos

Racing will perform a series of pit-stop demonstrations with its No. 50 Cadillac DPi, with IMSA Official Merchandise – including 50th Anniversary gear – available for purchase. There also will be a live DJ and opportunities to win Rolex 24 At Daytona tickets.The Fan Forum will also be streamed via Facebook Live on the IMSA Facebook page for those unable to attend in person.

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By: Marshall Pruett | January 21, 2019 9:55 AM IndyCar Series team owner Ricardo Juncos is ready to bring his energetic outfit to IMSA where Juncos Racing will make its WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut with the No. 50 Cadillac DPi-V.R in the Rolex 24 At Daytona this weekend.

By: Marshall Pruett | January 21, 2019 10:05 AM It’s a rare occasion when the throwback livery chosen by a manufacturer has family ties to not one, but two of its current drivers.That’s the case with Acura and its partners at Team Penske with its new white and orange colors featured on the pair of ARX-05 DPis set to vie for victory this weekend in Daytona. Calling back to the Comptech Racing Acuras that first appeared in 1986 with IMSA’s former International Sedan series, and continued—most famously—with the team’s step up to the GTP Lights class using NSX V6 engines, the Comptech colors were synonymous with the Acura brand.Two international driving talents, South Africa’s Wayne Taylor in 1992, and New Zealand’s Steve Cameron from 1991-1993, were brought in during Comptech’s GTP Lights days to help secure wins and a championship for the luxury offshoot of Honda America.Cameron, who moved to Sonoma, California, along with his brother Ricky, brought home a pair of winner’s medallions from the 1991 and 1992 24 Hours of Daytona, and Taylor, who settled his family in Florida, scored a win for Comptech on his debut at Laguna Seca in 1992.For Cameron, the two Daytona wins from three tries with the Acura team served as the highlight of his brief sports car career, and for Taylor, the best days would follow as he went on to win IMSA’s WSC championship – the replacement for GTP – in 1994 before more titles and major endurance racing victories were earned.Cameron’s nephew Dane, already a two-time IMSA champion, and Taylor’s son Ricky, the 2017 IMSA champion and Rolex 24 At Daytona winner, are enthused to carry on the family legacy of wearing the Comptech livery with their respective Acura Team Penske entries.“I’m a huge fan of motor sports and I’m a fan of my dad’s career,” Taylor told RACER. “Knowing everything he’s raced, I’ve always loved the Ferrari 333, the Chevy Intrepid, and the Acura GTP Lights car. They’re all iconic cars, and that orange and white Acura… it was always in our first house when we were growing up. That car was on the wall, a big poster of it from the top view, and I always loved those colors, the bright, bright orange.”Prior to being signed by Acura and Penske in 2018, Taylor spent most of his career driving for his father’s team where family history, in the form of certain colors or sponsors with historical significance, was the norm.“I thought when I left, they whole family trend was gone,” Taylor adds. “But now, it’s kind of cool. I never really thought I’d get to drive a car like the Acura ARX-05 with a livery from a time in my dad’s career that wasn’t maybe as well-known as other cars he drove. He was hired basically to help Acura win the championship. Parker Johnston was, as everybody knows, the lead driver there at the time, and dad was hired to support and help on the championship.“It’s cool to have an opportunity now, actually tying what we’re doing in 2019, to drive in the livery that has such importance to Acura. It also has importance for me.”Accompanying his father on a regular basis, Cameron grew up at his uncle’s race car prep shop at Sears Point where the back-to-back Daytona wins were an immense point of pride for the transplanted Kiwis.“It’s kind of funny because the pictures on the wall in my uncle’s shop, in his office, with that car, he had them everywhere,” Cameron said. “I didn’t really think much of it until later, and honestly, we grew up around Formula Atlantic and open-wheel cars, so I didn’t know a ton about sports cars when I was younger. But it’s super cool to be able to be in that same livery representing Acura in my own career. It’s funny the way the world works.“Not only is a Cameron in another Acura prototype program, but the cars literally looks exactly the same. I haven’t actually talked to my uncle about it yet, but I’m sure he’ll get a good kick and a good smile out of it, too.”Outside of his role as a race engineer in various racing series, Cameron’s father Ricky looks after a number of impressive vintage racing machines. Following a restoration or significant changes to some of those cars, the elder Cameron has called on his son to perform test driving duties, and in one instance, he piloted the mythic All American Racers Eagle Mk III that dominated IMSA’s GTP class from its introduction in 1991 through the category’s swan song in 1993.With familiarity of the era’s prototypes, Cameron made it clear wants to do more than win races for Acura Team Penske in its retro Comptech livery.“Even more on the bucket list is to drive the real thing, the real deal Acura GTP Lights car,” said Cameron, who got to drive an Acura NSX GT3 in the orange and white during a one-off Pirelli World Challenge race in 2017. “It’s still something that I really would like to do, especially now that I’m actually a part of the program and representing Acura.“So that would be really cool to complete that trio there of competing in their GT3 car, obviously now the ARX-05 and then the old Lights car. It would be great to compare all the differences there, 25 years a part, between two eras of the prototypes as well. That would be a dream to get to do that.”Cameron, and possibly Taylor, could have that wish granted later in the year as IMSA celebrates its 50th anniversary. With a few Acura Lights cars available for use, and more undergoing restorations, sampling new and old Acura prototypes – maybe with Steve Cameron and Wayne Taylor in attendance – would make for a great experience.Another experience Cameron is hoping for involves adding his name to the family’s winning account at the Rolex 24.“I’ve been able to win some championships where my uncle Steve wasn’t able to do, but he still has the Rolex wins over my head, so that’s the inter-family struggle and finger pointing,” he said with a laugh. “Until I can match him – or get one more than him there, hopefully – he’s always hanging that over my head, the fact that he’s got two of those and I don’t.“To do it in a car that looks the same as Steve’s would obviously be even better, especially being that it would be my first win at Daytona. Hopes are high, and maybe the family success there can bring some mojo for me because I’m 0 for 10 right now, and I’m looking to fix that.”Cameron also has his eye on a retro celebration of sorts if he were to win the Rolex 24 in the Comptech livery. Decades ago when his uncle won the race, gold IMSA medallions were handed out to each driver. Today’s winners receive Rolex watches, which are far more valuable, but if we’re talking about shiny objects, Cameron might ask his uncle for an assist with and old-school medallion to wear around his neck.“I need to get uncle Steve to dust them off a little bit and take them out from wherever he has them hiding,” he said. “That’d be pretty cool; I’d look like Flavor Flav. So, obviously all the teams are doing their part with throwback liveries, which is pretty cool, so why not do something like that with the trophies? I mean, I’d still want a Rolex if we win, but some of the throwback trophies and gold chains would be amazing.”