Reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion Will Power has announced that he will make his sportscar racing debut at this month’s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
He will take a short break from his open wheel training and will race alongside Kenny Habul, Axcil Jefferies, and Fabian Schiller in the SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GTD class.
The SunEnergy1 entry was recently added to the lineup for the 24-hour race, bringing the total field size up to 61 cars.
“The Daytona 24 is an iconic event on the bucket list of most drivers and I have to thank Kenny [Habul] for the opportunity,” said Power. “I am looking forward to driving the heavier GT car and getting experience for, hopefully, a lot more drives like this in the future – including the Bathurst 1000 and Bathurst 12-hour back in Australia.
“It is quite funny when you look back at how Kenny and I raced Formula Ford against each other all those years ago and now we are going to be teammates. He chose a business route instead of chasing his racing dream and has obviously been incredibly successful. It has been great to watch him enjoy his racing later in life and actually improve as he gets older.
“Kenny obviously knows what it takes to be successful in business and is applying all those lessons to his racing – his win in the Bathurst 12-hour last year is proof of that.”
Power joins a contingent of other IndyCar and IndyNXT drivers who have already been announced for the endurance race. His Penske team-mates Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden have previously committed to competing in the LMP2 class for Tower Motorsports. Rinus VeeKay and Devlin DeFrancesco are among others set to contest the LMP2 category.
In the new class of GTP prototypes, Colton Herta, Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, and Simon Pagenaud will all be taking to the track as well. The number of drivers in the race that make a career out of open wheel racing has now risen to 13, including Romain Grosjean and Kyle Kirkwood joining Power in the touring car classes.
Just two days after the conclusion of the endurance race, all the drivers that are gearing up for a season of racing in IndyCar will make their way to California for a week spent conducting media interviews and running in the series-mandated open testing days at The Thermal Club.
The 24 Hours of Daytona takes place January 28-29 on the Daytona International Speedway road course, with the green flag scheduled for 1:40PM Eastern time.
