Daytona Prototype - History

History

Debuting in the 2003 season, specifically at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, six Daytona Prototypes initially ran: A Fabcar-Toyota, a Picchio-BMW, a Doran-Chevrolet, two Fabcar-Porsches, and a Multimatic-Ford. In qualifying, a Chevrolet Corvette and a Ford Mustang, both from the GTS class, took the top two spots on the grid, while the leading Daytona Protype was the Multimatic-Ford. Grand-Am however reserved "the first three rows of the grid for the Daytona Prototypes, regardless of their qualifying times," to ensure the Daytona Prototypes started at the front of the field. The Daytona Prototypes also failed to even take the overall pole position from heavily restricted SRP prototypes. In the race itself, only two DPs managed to finish, far behind a much lower Grand Touring class car. However, after the teething problems were worked out, the cars began to take overall victories as the season progressed.

For 2004, the SRP classes were finally cancelled, and the number of DPs grew, with 17 appearing at the season opener at Daytona where they managed to take the overall win. By 2006, thanks to the low cost of the design, the number of DPs at some races grew to above thirty entrants, allowing for full fields and close racing.

In 2012, Grand-Am released the next generation Daytona Prototypes. Some of these include the new Corvette Daytona Prototype which also marks Chevrolet's return to the DP class and other manufacturers already in the series changed to multiple chassis designs from the chassis producers.

GARRA plans to continue using the Daytona Prototype in the forseable future, with new chassis designs being allowed into the series in 2008.

Since 2006, DP cars were permitted to compete in Japan's Super GT in the secondary GT300 class with outstanding results, one entrant, the Mooncraft Shiden lost out to an RE Amemiya RX-7 (although tied for points) in the drivers' title and again to a MR-S, but took the team title in 2007.