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The 2016 24 Hours of Daytona (formally the 54th Rolex 24 at Daytona) was an International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)-sanctioned 24-hour automobile endurance race for Prototype and Grand Touring sports cars held at the Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, from January 30 to 31, 2016. It was the first of twelve 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship races, the 54th 24 Hours of Daytona, and the first of the four-round North American Endurance Cup. The event was attended by approximately 35,000 people.
SMP Racing began from pole position after Mikhail Aleshin set the fastest lap in the Prototype class. The lead was exchanged several times between the DeltaWing, Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM), Michael Shank Racing, Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR), Mazda Motorsports and Action Express Racing teams during the race. ESM's Ed Brown, Pipo Derani, Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek recovered from a late race speeding penalty to achieve the team's first win at Daytona and the lead of both the Prototype Drivers' and Teams' Championships. Honda took the lead of the Prototype Manufacturers' Championship with its first overall victory in the event. WTR's Max Angelelli, Rubens Barrichello, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor finished 26 seconds later 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 third.
The Prototype Challenge (PC) category was won by JDC-Miller MotorSports' Oreca FLM09 car of Kenton Koch—Chris Miller, Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson—after the team recovered from a significant crash damaging their car in the 15th hour. Robert Alon, Tom Kimber-Smith, Jose Gutiérrez and Nicholas Boulle finished five laps down in second, while BAR1 Motorsports' Tomy Drissi, Marc Drumwright, Brendan Gaughan, Johnny Mowlem and Ricardo Vera was third. Corvette Racing won the Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) class with a Chevrolet Corvette C7.R shared by 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. Konrad Motorsport led the final nine minutes in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) until its lead Lamborghini Huracán made a pit stop for fuel handing the victory to Magnus Racing's 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.