Two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi is driving in his first Rolex 24 At Daytona this year in the No. 24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. In addition to it being his first WeatherTech Championship experience, it will be his first race in North America since losing both legs in a Champ Car crash at EuroSpeedway Lausitz (Germany) in 2001.
“In life, it’s a question of opportunities, and I had this one, which is certainly one of the opportunities I would choose,” he said. “The Rolex 24 At Daytona has always been, the 24-hour race for me in my eyes. Being European, people would probably be used to believe that I would want to go to Le Mans, but in reality, I grew up as a race car driver here in America. I’ve always heard about this race many stories from many colleagues who were involved at some points with this great event. I always dreamed to be here. I’ve been around a long, long time and it’s almost off time right now, but luckily, before the last curtain came down, here I am involved with BMW with a works machine for RLL, and I’m very, very excited to be here.”
Two-time Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso is back for his second consecutive Rolex 24 At Daytona, this time as part of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R driver lineup with co-drivers Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande and Kamui Kobayashi. In a news conference Friday afternoon with his teammates, Alonso introduced the possibility of more IMSA action in the future.
"It's definitely a possibility that I can race in different venues in IMSA in the future, and why not maybe do the full championship one day?” Alonso said. “Not in the short term, let's say, more medium- or long-term."
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