| |||
The 55th 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 28 to 29, 2017. It was the first of twelve events in the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship, the 55th 24 Hours of Daytona, and the first in the four-round North American Endurance Cup.
João Barbosa started from the pole position for Mustang Sampling Racing by lapping quickest in qualifying and held the lead for most of the opening hour until teammate Dane Cameron of Whelen Engineering Racing passed him. Wayne Taylor Racing joined in, trading the lead with the Mustang Sampling Racing, VisitFlorida Racing, Extreme Speed Motorsports, and Whelen Engineering Racing teams. Ricky Taylor collided with Filipe Albuquerque with around seven minutes to go, building a large lead while Albuquerque began to track him down. On the final lap of the race, Albuquerque reduced Taylor's lead by four seconds but was unable to reach Taylor in time to win the race. Max Angelelli, Jeff Gordon, and Jordan Taylor joined Ricky Taylor after 659 laps to lead in the Prototype Drivers' and Teams' Championships. VisitFlorida Racing's Marc Goossens, René Rast and Renger van der Zande completed the podium one lap behind in third.
The Prototype Challenge (PC) category was won by the Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 vehicle, shared by Nicholas Boulle, James French, Kyle Masson, and Patricio O'Ward after leading the category's final 514 laps. BAR1 Motorsport's No. 26 entry finished 22 laps behind in second place; third was the sister BAR1 car. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing won the Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) category with a Ford GT shared by Sébastien Bourdais, Joey Hand, and Dirk Müller by 2.988 seconds over a Porsche 911 RSR that defeated the third-place Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE by 0.091 seconds. The Alegra Motorsports team of Michael Christensen, Carlos de Quesada, Michael de Quesada, Jesse Lazare, and Daniel Morad won the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class in a Porsche 911 GT3 R by 0.293 seconds after Christensen overtook Montaplast by Land-Motorsport's Audi R8 LMS in the race's final hour. The Riley Motorsports – Team AMG-fielded Mercedes-AMG GT3 completed the class podium in third place.