Lamborghini trio ready to fight at the Daytona 24 Hours

Following a sensational one-two finish in 2020, Lamborghini Squadra Corse is targeting an unprecedented fourth consecutive Daytona 24 Hours victory this week with one of the strongest entries it has ever entered for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener.

The Sant’Agata Bolognese firm will field three cars for the 59th edition of the 24 Hours, each with at least one Lamborghini Factory Driver aboard. Broadcast coverage of the race will begin at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time Jan. 30 on NBC and then move to NBCSN from 4:30-8 p.m.

Leading the way for Lamborghini in 2021 is the defending winner in the GTD category, the #1 Paul Miller Racing entered car, with an unchanged line-up of Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, Corey Lewis and Andrea Caldarelli.

The quartet proved to be an incredibly balanced partnership last year, taking victory after a closely fought battle with the Magnus GRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of Marco Mapelli, Spencer Pumpelly, Andy Lally and John Potter.

Joining the Paul Miller Racing crew will be two cars run by Grasser Racing Team, both of which performed well in the grid-setting Motul Pole Award 100 last weekend. Grasser has a rich history of success at the 24 Hours, winning the event twice before in 2018 and 2019 with Ineichen and Bortolotti part of that victorious line-up each time.

In their first competitive outing since returning to the Lamborghini fold, Rolf Ineichen and Mirko Bortolotti finished third in the 100-minute race in the #111 GRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo. Ineichen and Bortolotti will be joined for the 24 Hours by Steijn Schothorst and Mapelli, creating a formidable driver line-up with a lot of endurance experience between them.

The second GRT Huracán finished just two places behind Ineichen and Bortolotti in fifth place last weekend, with Factory Driver Franck Perera and Misha Goikhberg steering the #19 car to a strong starting position ahead of the main race.

Perera and Goikhberg will be partnered by another Factory Driver in the form of Albert Costa Balboa and Tim Zimmermann, who plied his trade in ADAC GT Masters for Grasser in 2020.

Although Paul Miller Racing did not finish the Pole Award, all is not lost ahead of the 24 Hours, far from it in fact. The #1 crew elected to prioritise race set-up and will still be a force to be reckoned with come the end of the gruelling first endurance race of the 2021 season.

The Daytona 24 Hours will take place on Saturday, with the race starting at 15:40 ET (21:40 CET).