2011 24 Hours of Daytona

[1] The first race of the 2011 Rolex Sports Car Series season,[2] it was broadcast on Speed Channel, with fourteen hours of live coverage,[3] in addition to a considerable attendance.

Pole position for the race was won by Jörg Bergmeister of Germany, driving the #45 Daytona Prototype of Flying Lizard Motorsports, a Riley Technologies chassis powered by a Porsche engine, with a lap time of 1 minute 40.099 seconds.

[4] Pole for the Grand Touring category was won by Dominik Farnbacher in the #66 The Racer's Group Porsche 911, with a lap time of 1 minute 48.781 seconds.

[4] Winning the race overall was the Daytona Prototype team of Chip Ganassi Racing, with drivers Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Graham Rahal, and Joey Hand driving the #01 Riley & Scott-BMW defeating Chip Ganassi Racing's second team, consisting of IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti, and Sprint Cup teammates Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya in the #02 Riley & Scott-BMW by just over two seconds in a one-lap sprint following a late caution flag.

[6] The GT division victory was claimed by The Racer's Group, the #67 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup driven by Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly, Brendan Gaughan, Wolf Henzler, and Steven Bertheau winning by a margin of one lap.

Start of the 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Prototypes run at the 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
TV star Patrick Dempsey , seen here at the 2008 event, placed third in the GT class.