2016 24 Hours of Daytona


The 2016 24 Hours of Daytona was an International Motor Sports Association -sanctioned 24-hour automobile endurance race for Daytona Prototype and Grand Touring sports cars held at the Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, on January 30–31, 2016, before approximately 35,000 people. It was the first of twelve 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races, the 54th edition of the event, and the first of the four-round North American Endurance Cup.
SMP Racing began from the overall pole position after driver Mikhail Aleshin set the fastest lap in the Prototype class. He was immediately overtaken by Pipo Derani of the Extreme Speed Motorsports team at the start of the race. Derani maintained the lead until Katherine Legge in a DeltaWing overtook him before the end of the first hour. The lead was exchanged several times by Extreme Speed Motorsports, Michael Shank Racing, Wayne Taylor Racing, Mazda Motorsport and Action Express Racing during the race. Ed Brown, Derani, Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek recovered from incurring a late race penalty for speeding in the pit lane to claim Extreme Speed Motorsports' first win at Daytona and the lead of the Prototype Drivers' and Teams' Championships. The Wayne Taylor Racing quartet of Max Angelelli, Rubens Barrichello, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor finished 26 seconds behind in second, and Ryan Dalziel, Marc Goossens and Ryan Hunter-Reay of VisitFlorida Racing recovered from a late race change of car component to finish in third.
The Prototype Challenge category was won by JDC-Miller MotorSports' Oreca FLM09 car of Kenton Koch—Chris Miller, Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson—after the team had recovered from a significant crash that damaged their car in the fifteenth hour. Robert Alon, Tom Kimber-Smith, Jose Gutiérrez and Nicholas Boulle finished five laps behind the JDC/Miller car, while BAR1 Motorsports' Tomy Drissi, Marc Drumwright, Brendan Gaughan, Johnny Mowlem and Ricardo Vera completed the class podium in third. Corvette Racing won the Grand Touring Le Mans class with the trio of Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin. Tommy Milner and Marcel Fässler beating their teammates Antonio García, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller by the race's closest finishing margin of 0.034 seconds. Porsche took third with Earl Bamber, Michael Christensen and Frédéric Makowiecki sharing a 911 RSR. The Grand Touring Daytona was led in the final nine minutes by Konrad Motorsport until its lead Lamborghini Huracán made a pit stop for fuel handing the victory to Magnus Racing drivers Andy Lally, John Potter, René Rast and Marco Seefried. Black Swan Racing were second in class with Nicky Catsburg, Patrick Long, Tim Pappas and Andy Pilgrim, and Damien Faulkner, Eric Foss, Ben Keating, Jeff Mosing and Gar Robinson took third for Riley Motorsports.

Background

Preview

NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., who built the Daytona International Speedway in 1959, conceived the 24 Hours of Daytona as a race to attract European sports car endurance racing to the United States and provide international exposure to Daytona. It is informally considered part of the "Triple Crown of Endurance Racing" with the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
International Motor Sports Association president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in August 2015. It was the third consecutive year it was part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the 54th 24 Hours of Daytona. The 24 Hours of Daytona was the first of twelve scheduled automobile endurance races of 2016 by IMSA, and the first in the four round North American Endurance Cup. It took place at the 12-turn Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, on January 30–31.

Entry list

Fifty-four cars were officially entered for the 24 Hours of Daytona with the bulk of the entries in the Prototype and Grand Touring Daytona categories. The 2015 race winners, Chip Ganassi Racing, returned to defend their title. Action Express Racing and VisitFlorida Racing fielded two Chevrolet Corvette DP vehicles and Wayne Taylor Racing one. Chip Ganassi fielded two Riley MkXXVI cars with one from Highway to Help. Mazda Motorsports had two Lola B08/80 cars and both the Extreme Speed Motorsports and Michael Shank Racing teams entered one Ligier JS P2 each. SMP Racing made its North American endurance debut at Daytona with a BR Engineering BR01. Panoz brought the DeltaWing car to Daytona for the fifth year in a row. The Prototype Challenge class was composed of eight Oreca FLM09 cars: two from Starworks Motorsports and BAR1 Motorsports. CORE Autosport, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Performance Tech and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entered one car each.
made a one-off appearance for Chip Ganassi Racing at Daytona.
Grand Touring Le Mans consisted of eleven cars from five different brands. The BMW M6 GTLM debuted at Daytona with Team RLL. Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates partnered with Ford for a duo of Ford GTs that debuted at Daytona. Porsche fielded two 911 RSRs, three 488 GTEs represented Ferrari with one each from Risi Competizione, Scuderia Corsa and SMP Racing, and Corvette Racing entered two C7.Rs. GTD composed 22 cars amongst seven different GT3 manufacturers. Lamborghini was represented by five Huracáns in its North American endurance debut: two by Konrad Motorsports and one each from Change Racing, O'Gara Motorsport and Paul Miller Racing. Porsche had five 911 Rs: two by Alex Job Racing and one each for Black Swan Racing, Frikadelli Racing and Park Place Motorsports. A mix of teams and automotive brands made up the rest of the GTD field. These included two Stevenson Motorsports-entered Audi R8 LMS cars: one each from Magnus Racing and Flying Lizard Motorsports with Krohn Racing for the revised car's race debut. Turner Motorsport fielded two BMW M6s, Scuderia Corsa and Spirit of Race entered two 458 Italias. There were two Aston Martin V12 Vantages from Aston Martin Racing and TRG-AMR and two Riley Motorsports-entered Dodge Viper Rs.
Two full-time WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers drove a car. They were joined by one North American Endurance Cup racer and one or two extra drivers. These additional participants were recruited from a variety of racing categories, including the FIA World Endurance Championship, the IndyCar Series, and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters among others. Some drivers competed at Daytona on a one-off basis in 2016 such as: European Formula Three Championship racers Lance Stroll and Felix Rosenqvist, V8 Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen, and A. J. Allmendinger, Brendan Gaughan, Jamie McMurray, Justin Marks, and Kyle Larson from NASCAR. Jonathan Adam won the 2016 Sunoco Whelen Challenge by taking the 2015 British GT3 title, earning him a seat with Action Express. Four women entered the race: Ashley Freiberg, Katherine Legge, Christina Nielsen, and Sabine Schmitz.

Testing

Fifty-four entries were involved in three days of testing divided into seven sessions held at the circuit from January 8–10. Risi missed the test session because the team were constructing its 488 in Italy. Oswaldo Negri Jr. set the fastest time early in the first day's running with a lap of 1 minute and 39.655 seconds for the 60 Michael Shank Ligier. His co-driver Olivier Pla improved to a 1-minute and 39.445 second lap time in the second session. Pipo Derani set the second fastest-time in Extreme Speed's No. 2 Ligier and Sean Rayhall put the DeltaWing third. The fastest Daytona Prototype was Jordan Taylor's No. 10 Wayne Taylor Corvette in fourth. Separate crashes by Stroll at turn five soon after he left the pit lane, and João Barbosa of Action Express at the Bus Stop chicane due to a possible broken rear suspension, led to stoppages on the first day. Colin Braun's No. 54 CORE Autosport Oreca led in PC with a lap of 1 minute and 42.423 seconds. BMWs took the first two positions in GTLM with Lucas Luhr's No. 100 car setting a 1-minute and 45.088 seconds lap with Farfus' No. 25 entry second. Antonio García's No. 3 Corvette and Richard Westbrook's No. 66 Ford were third and fourth in class. A leak in an FIA-mandated fuel vent on the No. 4 Corvette of Tommy Milner overheated when fuel hit it and caused the car's right-rear corner to catch fire. GTD was led by Raffaele Giammaria's No. 51 Spirit Ferrari from Jeroen Bleekemolen's No. 23 Riley Viper.
Heavy morning fog prompted IMSA to revised the second day's schedule. Pla set the day's fastest time at 1 minute and 39.445 seconds, ahead of Legge's DeltaWing in second position. Ricky Taylor improved the Wayne Taylor Corvette to third. Spencer Pigot was fourth in Mazda's No. 55 Lola and Scott Sharp's Extreme Speed Ligier fifth. The PC category was led by Maro Engel's No. 88 Starworks Motorsport Oreca with a time of 1 minute and 43.175 seconds from Tom Kimber-Smith's No. 52 PR1 entry. Two crashes by Alex Popow and his teammate Renger van der Zande caused further stoppages to testing. Mike Rockenfeller led GTLM in the No. 3 Corvette with a 1-minute and 45.256 seconds lap, ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi's No. 68 Scuderia car, Westbrook's No. 67 Ford and Jan Magnussen's No. 4 Corvette. Mirko Bortolotti's No. 48 Paul Miller Lamborghini led in GTD with Fabio Babini's No. 28 Konrad car in second. An accident with the Konrad Lamborghini and Dion von Moltke caused further disruption to testing.
The third and final day of testing held in cloudy and clear weather had Daytona debutant Pipo Derani's Extreme Speed Ligier go fastest with a 1-minute and 39.438 seconds time with fifteen minutes left. Derani demoted Negri's Michael Shank Ligier, which was two-tenths of a second slower in second, and Tom Long put the No. 55 Mazda Lola in third position. Kirill Ladygin set the fourth-fastest lap in SMP Racing's No. 37 BR01, and Jonathan Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda Lola was fifth. Jack Hawksworth recorded the PC category's fastest lap for Starworks Motorsport's No. 8 team at 1 minute and 42.118 seconds, 0.340 seconds faster than his teammate Rosenqvist in second. Oliver Gavin's No. 4 Corvette recorded the day's quickest GTLM lap of 1 minute and 45.106 seconds. Dirk Müller caused damage to the front of the No. 66 Ford at turn five to stop testing again. The fastest GTD laps were set in the morning session by Leh Keen's No. 22 Alex Job Porsche and Damien Faulkner's No. 93 Riley Dodge in first and second.

Balance of performance changes

After testing, IMSA altered the balance of performance in all four categories in an attempt to achieve parity within them. The BR01, DeltaWing and Ligiers received ballast increases to affect their handling. The Rileys, Ligiers and Lolas had their turbocharger boost pressures reduced to lower their performances. The Corvette Daytona Prototypes had performance changes. The eight PC vehicles had the position of their rear wings adjusted to affect its aerodynamic efficiency. BMW. Ferrari, and Ford had their turbocharger boost pressures cut to lower top speeds. Porsche's and Corvette had fuel tank size increases of. The GTD, Aston Martin, Audi, Dodge and Ferrari all had of weight deducted, as Lamborghini and BMW received ballast increases of the same amount. Porsche received a fuel capacity increase of.

Practice and qualifying

Four practice sessions were held before the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first one-hour session on Thursday morning was followed by a half-hour session later that afternoon. The third held that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.
The track was wet and the sky overcast for the first practice session. The conditions lowered lap times for the GT cars by around 10 to 15 seconds and 15 to 18 seconds for Prototype vehicles. Negri led for Michael Shank with a lap of 1 minute and 54.807 seconds. The fastest GTLM car was Toni Vilander's No. 62 Risi Ferrari in second overall and Frédéric Makowiecki's No. 912 Porsche third. Fourth was James Calado's No. 72 SMP Ferrari and Dirk Werner's No. 25 BMW completed the top five. The fastest PC class car was Ryan Lewis' BAR1 No. 26 car with a 2 minutes and 0.221 seconds lap, followed by his teammate Johnny Mowlem in the sister No. 20 entry. Matt McMurry in the No. 73 Park Place Porsche led GTD from Bleekemolen's No. 33 Riley Viper and Gianmaria's No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari. Spencer Pumpelly damaged the front and rear of the No. 16 Change Racing Lamborghini in an accident against the inside wall leaving NASCAR turn four and stopping the session five minutes early. He was checked and released from the infield care center.
Due to a cold air temperature preventing the track from drying and a forecast for more rain, cars used wet-weather tires for the second practice session. Sébastien Bourdais in the No. 66 GTLM Ford led outright with a time of 1 minute and 56.024 seconds. The No. 62 Risi Ferrari car of Giancarlo Fisichella was second; third was Calado's No. 72 SMP Ferrari. Rounding out the top five were the two Corvette cars. The fastest Prototype car was Mikhail Aleshin's No. 37 SMP BR01 in sixth overall. The PC category was led by Mowlem's No. 20 BAR1 Oreca, and Maxime Martin's No. 72 Turner BMW was quickest in GTD. The session was first halted ten minutes in because Van Der Zande's No. 8 Starworks Oreca and the No. 50 Highway Riley had stopped at the Bus Stop chicane. Both cars returned to the pit lane without external assistance. A second stoppage came soon after for track clearing due to the right-rear tire tread coming off the wheel on Lars Viljoen's No. 007 Aston Martin on the front stretch. During the stoppage, the No. 97 Turner BMW's right-rear tire was found to be down. The debris damaged the Flying Lizard No. 45 Audi's right-front radiator grille.
set the fastest overall lap time in qualifying.
Thursday afternoon's 90-minute qualifying session was divided into four groups. GTD cars were sent onto the track first for 15 minutes with a 10-minute interval before the GTLM, PC and Prototype entrants had three separate identically timed sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put all Prototype cars first, followed by PC, GTLM and GTD entries. Rain fell and increased in intensity as cars lifted spray from the tarmac surface. A GTLM car was fastest overall with Nick Tandy's No. 911 Porsche setting a lap of 2 minutes and 1.408 seconds. His teammate Makowiecki qualified the No. 912 Porsche on the grid's front row in the category. John Edwards qualified the No. 100 BMW in third place in GTLM due to an error from him at turn six, as Pier Guidi's Scuderia Corsa and Vilander's Risi Ferrari 488 cars completed the top five in class. Gianmaria Bruni's No. 72 SMP car hydroplaned entering turn one and struck a tire barrier. The collision damaged the vehicle's left-rear corner and removed its rear wing. The GTLM qualifying was lengthened to allow drivers to have a minimum of ten minutes of green flag driving time.
Mowlem's No. 20 BAR1 Oreca was eighth overall and the fastest PC class car with a 2 minutes and 5.708 seconds lap. Stephen Simpson's No. 85 JDC/Miller entry was second and Ryan Eversley's sister BAR1 car completed the top three in the category. SMP were ninth overall and began from pole position with Aleshin's 2 minutes and 5.793 seconds lap in its BR01 to take the car's first endurance racing pole position after he avoided contact with a wall on his fastest lap. Aleshin was half a second faster than Derani's Extreme Speed Ligier in second. Michael Shank was third courtesy of a lap from Negri. Ricky Taylor was the highest-placed Daytona Prototype driver in fourth after he could not control the car on the sodden circuit. Wayne Taylor did not drive the session's final 3½ minutes. Daytona debutant Alexander Wurz was fifth in Chip Ganassi's No. 1 Riley. In GTD, Norbert Siedler took the class pole position in Park Place's Porsche with a 2 minutes and 5.878 seconds time. Marc Basseng put the No. 28 Konrad Lamborghini second, Keen for Alex Job was third and Falkuner's No. 93 Riley Viper came fourth.
In the third practice session, rain continued to fall. Some teams elected not to take part in the session as 34 cars were checked in preparation for the race. Jan Magnussen's No. 4 Corvette set the fastest overall lap of 2 minutes and 5.881 seconds. Farfus' No. 25 BMW was second-fastest and the second Corvette of Oliver Gavin was third. Fourth overall was the GTD-category No. 44 Magnus Audi of René Rast and Alex Job's Porsche of Shane van Gisbergen was fifth. The highest-placed Prototype entry was Dorsey Schroeder's No. 50 Highway to Help Riley in sixth overall with a lap of 2 minutes and 14.193 seconds. Simpson led the PC class with a 2 minutes and 19.275 seconds lap in the JDC/Miller Oreca and was ahead of John Falb's No. 26 BAR1 car.
The fourth and final practice session was the first time in the race meeting drivers were able to drive on a dry track. Katherine Legge led with a time of 1 minute and 38.590 seconds set in the DeltaWing, followed by the Ligier cars of Olivier Pla of Michael Shank and Johannes van Overbeek for Extreme Speed in second and third. Mazda were fourth courtesy of a lap from Jonathan Bomarito in the team's No. 55 Lola. The Wayne Taylor Corvette of Max Angelelli was the fastest Daytona Prototype in fifth position. Kirill Ladygin's No SMP BR01 had an engine failure after the exit to the West Horseshoe and the session was stopped briefly to allow for its recovery to the pit lane. Kimber-Smith led in PC for PR1 with a 1-minute and 43.283 seconds lap, ahead of Kenton Koch of JDC/Miller and Martin Plowman for CORE Autosport. Bill Auberlen and Lucas Luhr had the first two places in GTLM for Team RLL. Pier Guidi of Scuderia Corsa and Earl Bamber's No. 912 Porsche were third and fourth in class. Jörg Bergmeister of Park Place led in GTD from the Lamborghini entries of Paul Miller's Mirko Bortolotti and O'Gara's Townsend Bell in second and third. A second stoppage was necessitated when the No. 60 Turner BMW stopped on the inside before the Bus Stop chicane.

Pre-race

Due to the No. 72 SMP Ferrari causing a stoppage during qualifying, the vehicle was sent to the final starting position in GTLM. Both the No. 96 and 97 Turner BMW cars had their qualifying lap times deleted due to turbocharger boost control problems; the No. 96 was demoted to the rear of the GTD grid and the No. 97 had a one-lap penalty imposed on it.
The No. 37 SMP Racing BR01 underwent an engine change and it was allowed to start from the outright pole position because the team did so after a qualifying session for a race lasting more than six hours in length. Riley Motorsport's No. 33 Viper had its clutch replaced after the team sidelined it from the final practice session.

Qualifying results

s in each class are indicated in bold and by a. P stands for Daytona Prototype International, PC, GTLM and GTD.
Notes:

Start and opening hours

Weather conditions at the start were clear and cool with a slight breeze; forecasts four days before the event indicated it would be partially cloudy with a maximum air temperature of. Approximately 35,000 people attended the event. Two-time 24 Hours of Daytona overall winner A. J. Foyt waved the green flag at 14:40 Eastern Standard Time to begin proceedings. 54 cars were due to take the start, but the No. 9 Stevenson Audi was in the garage for three laps with a battery problem. Derani and Negri overtook Aleshin on lap one to take first and second positions. Stephen Simpson moved the JDC/Miller Oreca and Bryce Miller in the Paul Miller Lamborghini to the front of the PC and GTD categories, respectively, as Townsend Bell's O'Gara car progressed to second in GTD. Derani and Negri pulled away from the third-placed DeltaWing of Legge to be twenty seconds ahead before the first full course caution came out and the pace car appeared. The No. 70 Mazda Lola of Tom Long stopped at turn four with a loss of oil pressure resulting from a broken flywheel and the car was retired.
Some cars made early pit stops during the caution. Corvette Racing adjusted the angle of the No. 3 C7.R's rear wing to raise its top speed. Several GTD-class vehicles including the category pole sitter Norbert Siedler's No. 73 Park Place Porsche incurred stop-and-hold penalties to be taken in the pit lane. Derani maintained the lead from Negri and Legge at the rolling restart on lap 16. He moved clear from the rest of the field with slower GT traffic behind his Ligier. The lead of the GTLM category became a multi-manufacturer battle between Tandy's Porsche, Joey Hand of Ford, the SMP Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and Corvette Racing; Tandy emerged in front. Legge overtook Negri for second overall and took the outright lead for DeltaWing before the first hour's close when Derani made a pit stop. She later relinquished the lead back to Derani when she made a pit stop and returned to the race in second.
Hand's No. 66 Ford stopped on the apron between NASCAR turns two and three with a dislodged brake line, a faulty gearbox and an intermittent kill switch issue. A caution was required to slow the race for a second time, just as Hand restarted the car and returned to the pit lane. The leaders in the Prototype and GTLM categories made pit stops under caution. Legge stalled as she exited her pit box, and Extreme Speed lost time because Johannes van Overbeek took over from Derani. Scott Dixon's Chip Ganassi Riley elected not to make a pit stop, and led at the lap 56 restart. As João Barbosa was lapping slower GTLM traffic on the outside at the International Horseshoe corner, he ran deep onto some sodden grass and hit the tire wall with the right front corner of his car. He continued in the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP with no major problems. John Pew's Michael Shank Ligier appeared to miss his braking point and made contact with the rear of Van Overbeek's car at the Bus Stop chicane. Both cars sustained bodywork damage, and Van Overbeek was sent into a spin.
Legge used the DeltaWing's superior aerodynamic performance to retake the lead. This made her the first female to lead a lap of the 24 Hours of Daytona overall. She opened up a two-second lead just as the Prototype entries made another sequence of pit stops. The Extreme Speed car had its rear wing repaired and diffuser altered, as Andy Meyrick took over from Legge in the DeltaWing. This promoted the No. 2 Chip Ganassi Riley of Jamie McMurray back to first position. Bell's No. 11 O'Gara Lamborghini was forced to enter the garage with a series of electrical problems that dropped the car down the GTD order. Dane Cameron's No. 5 Action Express car and Wayne Taylor driver Max Angelelli dueled for the lead and allowed the No. 55 Mazda and Meyrick to close up to the two cars.

Night

As night fell, Sean Johnston's No. 88 Starworks Oreca spun at the exit to the pit lane. He made contact with the wall and destroyed the car's front left corner. That wheel locked up and forced Johnston to return to the pit lane at a slow pace. Meyrick was later issued a stop-and-go penalty because he spun the DeltaWing's rear tires while it was suspended in the air on its jack for a tire change. Chris Cumming stalled the No. 8 Starworks vehicle on the racing line in the center before the first turn afterward. He attempted to restart the car, and IMSA did not immediately activate the caution procedure. Almost 1½ minutes later, Meyrick could not react in time, braked after not noticing yellow flags, and the DeltaWing's front struck Cumming's car with enough force to lift it from the ground. Meyrick and Cumming were evaluated at the infield care center, and Cumming was not cleared to compete. The full course caution was activated for the third time to recover the stricken cars. In the meantime, Angelelli's Wayne Taylor Corvette DP overtook Cameron's No. 31 Action Express car for the outright lead as they negotiated past the No. 8 Starworks Oreca. IMSA officials deemed the pass to have occurred under exceptional circumstances and changed the positions.
When racing resumed, Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda led overall with the Corvette cars of Tommy Miller and Antonio García first and second in GTLM. McMurray's No. 2 Chip Ganassi Riley took the lead from Bomarito on the inside line before he experienced understeer and Milner made light contact with him. McMurray stalled the Riley just after the racing line at the International Horseshoe turn; no driver hit his car. The Wayne Taylor Corvette DP of Angelelli incurred a penalty for overtaking under yellow flag conditions; it provided Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda with a large advantage upfront. Konrad's No. 28 Lamborghini earned a penalty for failing to comply with the wave-around procedure during the caution. It was demoted from the lead of GTD to one lap adrift of Bryan Sellers' Paul Miller car. Olivier Pla of Michael Shank returned the team to the lead shortly after. Before the fourth hour concluded, a fourth full course yellow was given to clear the track: Brandon Gdovic locked the wheels on the No. 38 Performance Tech car on the run to the Bus Stop chicane and spun under braking.
As the safety car was recalled, the PC-class leading No. 54 CORE Oreca was brought into the garage by driver Mark Wilkins to be retired after he reported that a vibration jolted the car on NASCAR turn four due to an engine failure causing oil to leak from the engine bay. The car's retirement elevated the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen vehicle of José Gutiérrez to the lead of PC with a two-lap advantage over the class field. A fifth caution came out shortly after when Don Yount spun and stalled the No. 26 BAR1 Oreca following a collision with Tandy's GTLM-class leading No. 911 Porsche. During the caution, the second-placed No. 55 Mazda of Bomarito and later Spencer Pigot had its steering wheel changed in a failed attempt to repair its lighting system. Mazda then changed the car's electronic control unit, and it rejoined the race two laps down in ninth. A sixth caution was necessitated for 13 minutes when Mark Kvamme in the No. 88 Starworks car had an accident at the Bus Stop Chicane. Two further cautions came out in a period of a half hour when Ben Keating spun and damaged the No. 93 Riley Viper at the Western Horseshoe turn and the No. 21 Konrad Lamborghini required recovery shortly afterward.
The cautions brought the first eight cars in GTLM onto the same lap with Porsche's No. 912 of Earl Bamber leading the No. 3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen and the No. 72 SMP Ferrari of James Calado. The No. 1 Chip Ganassi car of Tony Kanaan was required to enter the garage to replace brakes that had lost pressure when applied into the first corner. Repairs took 15 minutes to complete, and the car rejoined the race with Kyle Larson driving it 10 laps behind the race leader. A further two cautions came when Kenton Koch stopped against a wall leaving the Bus Stop chicane, and Ryan Eversley spun and stalled the No. 26 BAR1 Oreca in the infield grass at the Western Horseshoe corner. Nine and a half hours into the race, the race-leading No. 60 Michael Shank Ligier developed engine problems that caused it to leak oil on the track as Negri stopped on the run-off area at the Western Horseshoe turn. An eleventh caution was necessitated for race officials to dry the oil laid on the track, and to extricate Negri's car to the garage where it was retired. Its retirement promoted Scott Sharp's Extreme Speed Ligier to the outright lead before he took a stop-and-hold penalty for passing a red light at the exit of the pit lane and handing the position to Scott Pruett's No. 5 Action Express car.
The Paul Miller and Change Lamborghini cars of Bryce Miller and Justin Marks, who had been duelling for the lead of GTD, collided on the entry to turn one. Both cars spun and the Paul Miller car sustained heavy rear suspension and left-front toe link damage from striking the end of the pit lane barrier. The collision promoted Shane Van Gisbergen's Alex Job Porsche to the class lead with Alex Riberas' car second. It prompted a 27-minute 12th caution. When racing resumed, Tandy returned the No. 911 Porsche to the top of GTLM and Pruett and Angelelli battled for the outright lead. Sven Müller moved the Frikadelli Porsche to the lead of GTD before the No. 55 Mazda's retirement from a rear value train problem with Tristan Nunez caused the 13th caution. Following 19 minutes of green flag racing, the No. 50 Highway car of Thomas Gruber stopped with suspected electrical issues requiring a 14th caution to allow the car to be extricated to the pit lane. Scuderia Corsa's Pier Guidi used the caution to take the GTLM class lead, and Derani overtook Pruett's No. 5 Action Express car to return Extreme Speed to first position before the 12-hour mark.

Morning to early afternoon

A suspected brake disc failure sent Lucas Luhr's No. 100 BMW into the barrier at turn one and caused heavy damage to the car in a collision against an outside barrier; debris littered the area. He was sent across an access road and stopped at turn six. Luhr was uninjured, but the damage sustained to the BMW necessitated its retirement. A 13-minute 15th caution was deployed to clear the debris. After the resumption of racing, Simon Pagenaud's No. 31 Action Express Corvette DP took the lead from Ed Brown's Extreme Speed Ligier. The lead of GTLM changed from Scuderia Corsa to Porsche returning to first and second with Kévin Estre's No. 911 car ahead of Bamber's No. 912 entry. The fourth-placed car in GTLM of García was hit by Olivier Beretta's No. 62 Risi Ferrari. García continued without major damage to the No. 3 car. Pier Guidi separated the two Porsche cars by using a 16th caution for the SMP BR01 stopping on the circuit to take second in class. The No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Oreca was forced to enter the garage for repairs to a malfunctioning fuel pump relay and the car lost 20 laps to the PC class-leading No. 85 JDC/Miller entry.
The close of the 14th hour saw the 17th caution: the No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin of Antonio Pérez and Emanuele Busnell's No. 21 Konrad Lamborghini made contact causing the Aston Martin to spin and rest against a tire barrier on the outside of the Bus Stop chicane. Both cars were retired from the event. The two GTLM class-leading Porsche cars had their brake discs changed and promoted Bill Auberlen's No. 25 BMW to the category lead. Marc Goossens led at the restart in the No. 90 VisitFlorida Corvette DP before Cameron of Action Express overtook him leaving the International Horseshoe corner. Five Prototype cars were within one second of each other as Goossens retook the lead from Cameron not long after. Before the end of the 15th hour, the No. 31 Action Express Corvette DP had a flash fire when fuel hit the car's cockpit and bodywork. JDC/Miller had an anxious moment when Kenton Koch damaged the No. 85 Oreca's front bodywork and suspension against a tire barrier. Koch returned to the pit lane and repairs were fast enough for JDC/Miller not to relinquish the PC class lead to Don Yount's No. 26 BAR1 car.
The No. 67 Ford of Stefan Mücke stalled off the circuit in the center of the Bus Stop chicane in the early morning necessitating the 18th caution. Around this time, the teams began to decide who would run the rest of the event. Scott Sharp got Extreme Speed back onto the same lap as the top five and took them to second overall. A stall for Tracy Krohn prompted the 19th caution since his Audi required recovery to the pit lane. A sequence of pit stops promoted Action Express' Christian Fittipaldi to the lead. He maintained it when racing resumed with Jordan Taylor second. One lap later, Derani overtook Taylor for second, just as García ceded the No. 3 Corvette's hold on second in GTLM by taking a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding. Derani overtook Fittipaldi of Action Express for the lead at the start of the 19th hour. Corvette Racing returned to the first two positions of GTLM with Tommy Milner and the recovering García bump drafting each other to pass Frédéric Makowiecki's No. 912 Porsche. The third-placed GTLM No. 911 Porsche entered the garage with a faulty left-rear driveshaft, as the No. 85 JDC/Miller car had a change of front toe link at a pit stop.
Patrick Lindsey's No. 73 Park Place car had a front axle failure exiting the fifth corner and slowed en route to the pit lane. He asked a guard to open a gate for access to the infield via an exit road on the race track to avoid a caution. Lindsey negotiated his way past stationary vehicles, temporary structures and spectators to reach crew members at his garage. Shane Van Gisbergen was faster than Marco Seefried's No. 44 Magnus Audi ahead of him and used a better corner exit to pass him for the GTD lead. At the front of the field, Derani was relieved by Johannes van Overbeek in the Extreme Speed Ligier. Max Angelelli for Wayne Taylor caught and passed Van Overbeek in slower traffic to reclaim first position in the 20th hour. Van Overbeek was able to maintain the pace of Angelelli and prevented the latter from pulling away.
The 20th caution came out when the No. 67 Ford stopped between NASCAR turns one and two with a low voltage. Bodywork from the right rear of the No. 28 Konrad Lamborghini also needed clearing. Several drivers made pit stops during the caution. The GTLM class leading No. 4 Corvette of Marcel Fässler ignored a red light at the exit of the pit lane; he received a one-minute stop-and-hold penalty, which lost him the category lead to his teammate Mike Rockenfeller. Alex Job's No. 23 Porsche, which led in GTD, was assessed a three-minute stop-and-hold penalty for non-compliance of the wave-by procedure. Filipe Albuquerque retook the lead for Action Express and maintained it until he entered the garage to repair a broken left-rear driveshaft. Repairs took ten minutes to complete, and the team relinquished the lead back to Angelelli. A drive-through penalty imposed on Van Overbeek's Extreme Speed Ligier for speeding in the pit lane allowed Angelelli to draw further away. That was nullified when Kyle Larson's No. 1 Chip Ganassi Riley had brake issues and crashed into a tire barrier at the West Horseshoe corner, triggering the 21st and final caution.

Finish

Derani relieved Van Overbeek in the Extreme Speed Ligier and closed up to the race-leading unwell Wayne Taylor driver Jordan Taylor. He overtook Taylor on the outside, leaving NASCAR turn four to reclaim the lead. The Alex Job Porsche of Shane Van Gisbergen was within a second of René Rast in the No. 44 Magnus Audi at the front of GTD when the car's rear wing collapsed with 50 minutes left due to a negative camber setting creating stress. He consequently spun into the infield and lost six seconds to Rast. Van Gisbergen made a pit stop for repairs to the rear wing and Alex Job Racing dropped out of contention for a GTD class podium. Earl Bamber's No. 912 Porsche had moved to the front of GTLM. He maintained the position until Oliver Gavin aboard the No. 4 Corvette employed a bump and run passing technique for first in class. IMSA race control took no action over the contact between Gavin and Bamber after deeming it acceptable. Gavin's teammate Antonio García then overtook Bamber to demote him to third in class.
held off his Corvette Racing teammate Antonio García to win in the GTLM category for the No. 4 team by 0.034 seconds.
Unchallenged in the final hour of the race after a power steering failure and rising transmission temperatures, Derani took the chequered flag for the Extreme Speed team, who completed 736 laps and finished 26.166 seconds ahead of the Wayne Taylor Corvette DP of Max Angelelli in second. VisitFlorida Racing followed 1 minute and 27 seconds later with the No. 90 Corvette DP to complete the overall podium in third after they recovered from a lap down due to a switch of electronic control unit at a pit stop late in the event. It was Honda, Ligier and Extreme Speed's first Daytona win. The Ligier JS P2 became the first Le Mans Prototype 2 car to win outright at Daytona, and it was the vehicle's first major endurance victory.
Once García had moved into second place in GTLM, Corvette Racing team manager Doug Fehan assured him that team orders would not be invoked. Fehan wanted to let both cars race for the win and he explained and consulted with Chevrolet United States vice president Jim Campbell, General Motors director of racing Mark Kent, and president of General Motors North America Mark Reuss about the plan. All three concurred with Fehan's suggestion. Gavin was informed over the radio by his race engineer that he and García could duel each other with no vehicular contact. García battled Gavin for the win in the final 20 minutes, losing to the latter's No. 4 team by 0.034 seconds in the closest class finish in the history of the race. Porsche completed the GTLM podium in third place with the No. 912 car. It was Gavin and Milner's first American endurance racing victory since the 2013 12 Hours of Sebring.
Rast's No. 44 Magnus Audi continued to lead in GTD by half a minute until Fabio Babini in the No. 28 Konrad Lamborghini overtook him into the first corner with nine minutes to go. Babini then slowed on the back straight with a lack of fuel and relinquished the lead back to Rast. He conserved enough fuel over the final three minutes of the event to win for Magnus Racing by 3.048 seconds ahead of Nicky Catsburg's No. 540 Black Sway Porsche in second. The No. 93 Riley Viper completed the class podium in third position. It was the Audi R8 LMS' fourth major endurance victory in five starts over the past year and its first in the United States. JDC/Miller were victorious in PC with Kenton Koch winning by four laps over Tom Kimber-Smith's No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen entry in second. BAR1 took the final class podium position in third. There were 56 overall lead changes; ten cars reached the front of the field. The Extreme Speed Ligier led 16 times for a race-high 179 laps.

Post-race

The Extreme Speed team appeared in Victory Lane to celebrate their victory in front of the crowd. Derani commented on the race's final 2½ hours, "I was trying to not make any mistakes and keep the gap. To increase the gap up to the end was amazing. I need to thank my team for the amazing car they gave me." Sharp said the win made up for a poor 2015 season, "It is so good to see this come together so well with our merged team with Onroak." Van Overbeek said of Extreme Speed's success, "I was reflecting on this win here. Ed and I were responsible for two of the three P2 wins and it makes me happy. Running the P2 made me feel a bit like a red-haired step child, so to win here with a P2 makes me feel quite proud of all of our efforts." Jordan Taylor spoke of his belief his team were satisfied with their second-place finish, and his brother Ricky Taylor felt the event was an example of "one of the more treacherous 24-hour races in the night" due to slower PC class cars impeding him.
Doug Fehan said the battle of the two Corvette C7.R cars for the win in GTLM in the final hour of the race was "one of those moments in my own personal career that will always stand out as being really what this sport embodies and what Corvette Racing embodies. It was a wonderful moment in time." Oliver Gavin recalled before the 2017 race he had celebrated shortly after he took the win for the team and praised his teammate Antonio García's sportsmanship, "All I could think about was my boss, Doug Fehan and what he would say if we did touch. Then on the last lap I was thinking I had just enough on him, but then he towed up behind me. It was like the line was just going away from me. I couldn't get to the line fast enough. I've just seen a picture of it, actually, and it was pretty close." Patrick Lindsey's drive to the infield via the track late in the event received attention on social media. He said he learnt of this development through a sponsor, and the public thought it was humorous.
Max Angelelli lost lucidity, strength and awareness of events around him because a cracked exhaust header caused the cockpit of the Wayne Taylor Corvette DP to fill with exhaust fumes. He stopped on the NASCAR turn one run-off area, where track marshals waved yellow flags. Wayne Taylor Racing requested medical assistance from IMSA after he did not respond to a radio message because he had fainted from carbon monoxide poisoning. He was hospitalized in Daytona Beach and then Orlando, where he was treated in a hyperbaric chamber. Angelelli was released on February 1 for recuperation. Wayne Taylor Racing were interviewed by police and provided data and analysis of the incident to IMSA's Safety Field Investigation team. The GTD-class winning No. 44 Magnus Audi team was investigated for a suspected violation of drivers' stints. The team was cleared since IMSA found no rules violation.
All the V10 engines in the five Lamborghini Huracán cars were impounded post-race and sent to NASCAR's research and development center in Concord, North Carolina, for dyno testing in February 2016. This came after the GTD manufacturers and IMSA communicated via e-mail about a series of requests to adjust the balance of performance before the race because Lamborghini ran an illegal air restrictor from an outdated Audi R8 LMS. 23 days after the event, Change Racing, Konrad Motorsport, O'Gara Motorsport and Paul Miller Racing incurred a retroactive five-minute stop-and-hold penalty for violating a regulation enacted to stop sandbagging. Lamborghini had its GTD Manufacturers' Championship and North American Endurance Cup points scored in Daytona invalidated and was fined $25,000. It was the first time since its introduction in 2014 that IMSA imposed the regulation. The No. 28 Konrad car was demoted from fifth to tenth, and the O'Gara car fell from tenth to fifteenth.
Because it was the first race of the season, Brown, Derani, Sharp and Van Overbeek led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 36 points, with Angelelli, Rubens Barrichello, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor second with 33 points. Misha Goikhberg, Kenton Koch, Chris Miller and Simpson led the PC points standings from the quartet of Robert Alon, Nicholas Boulle, Gutiérrez and Kimber-Smith. Fässler, Gavin and Milner took the lead of the GTLM Drivers' Championship with their teammates García, Magnussen and Rockenfeller in second position. In the GTD points standings, Andy Lally, John Potter, Rast and Seefried held sway over Catsburg, Patrick Long, Tim Pappas and Andy Pilgrim. Extreme Speed Motorsports, JDC/Miller, Corvette Racing and Magnus Racing became the leaders of their respective class Teams' Championships. Honda, Chevrolet and Audi assumed the lead of their respective Manufacturers' Championships with 11 races left in the season.

Race results

Class winners are denoted in bold and by a. P stands for Daytona Prototype International, PC, GTLM and GTD.
Notes:
;Prototype Drivers' Championship standings
;PC Drivers' Championship standings
;GTLM Drivers' Championship standings
;GTD Drivers' Championship standings
;Prototype Teams' Championship standings
;PC Teams' Championship standings
;GTLM Teams' Championship standings
;GTD Teams' Championship standings
;Prototype Manufacturers' Championship standings
;GTLM Manufacturers' Championship standings
;GTD Manufacturers' Championship standings