DAYTONA BEACH — At 10 p.m. on the first day of last year’s Rolex 24, Connor Zilisch had to work extra hard to keep his concentration.
As is tradition during that time of the annual endurance classic, Daytona International Speedway shot off fireworks. Zilisch was behind the wheel, trying to focus on the 3.56-mile road course.
But he also didn’t want to completely miss the show.
“You’re, like, trying to look,” he said with a smile.
Or trying not to.
Regardless, it’s one of the 19-year-old’s favorite moments of the race. He also loves the sunrise.
Across 24 hours, drivers see the event from all angles. What time is their favorite? Like the race, their answers run the gamut.
“I love night, but it’s a tough shift, the graveyard shift,” said IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin, who will pilot the No. 36 DXDT Corvette this weekend. “I’ve actually never done a sunrise here, which would be pretty cool. I’ve done like 7, 8 in the morning and the sun’s up and whatnot. But yeah, I haven’t done sunset and I haven’t done sunrise. Right now, I’d probably say nighttime, but I would like to do one of those stints.”
He isn’t alone. Drivers rarely compete at times like 3 a.m. So when they come to Daytona in January and do, it sticks in their minds, for better or worse.
“I quite like the night time,” said Ben Barker, who co-drives the No. 64 Ford Mustang. “Sunrise and sunset are sometimes quite difficult. It’s quite blinding. So I don’t tend to like those times, but at the end of the day, you jump in when you’re needed to jump in.
“I think the morning time as the sun first starts to creep up is quite a nice feeling. It’s the start of a new day, gives you a bit of energy, and you get going to the end of the race.”
Slightly more than half the Rolex 24 is completed in the dark. Some like it. Some don’t. But most enjoy that transition from night to day.
“I think it’s the hardest thing to do, but it’s really cool going from the night into the sunrise,” Frederik Vesti said before agreeing with Zilisch, his No. 31 Whelen Cadillac teammate. “It’s really cool. You sort of get that shift. The track starts to become a bit faster again. The sun is coming up, and you start to feel a bit more fresh. That’s a really special time of the race. Obviously, driving by night is super cool. But then you get that sort of wake-up moment into the morning.”
And others, like two-time defending champion Felipe Nasr, aren’t picky.
“I like all parts of it,” said Nasr of the No. 7 Penske Porsche. “You get lucky when you have the transition phases from night to day and day to night. Also, the early hours in the morning are really nice to drive. It’s just hard. I’ve had years where you feel, ‘Man, this race has so many hours in the night’ because you just kept driving in the night. And other times, you just see daylight. It’s hard to judge.”
The 64th running of the Rolex 24 will fire up at 1:40 p.m. Saturday. It will end at 1:40 Sunday afternoon. The beginning and conclusion will air on NBC, while Peacock, IMSA TV and YouTube will stream the entire thing.
Watch Rolex 24 live on Peacock
“The start is always special,” Nasr said. “To see all the cars line up, you see the crowds in the start/finish. And then ending the race, it’s probably the most special part.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Rolex 24 spans 24 hours at Daytona. Which time is drivers’ favorite?
Reporting by Chris Vinel, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
