What you need to know about Roar Before the Rolex 24, including entry lists, schedules - MotorSportsTalk

The first racing action of the new year – not counting snowmobiles or dog teams in blizzard-laden areas – takes place Friday through Sunday with the IMSA Roar Before the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.

The three-day event is the kick-off for the sports car world’s season. Not only will there be plenty of practice sessions, there will also be a first-ever race as part of the Roar: the IMSA Prototype Challenge (Saturday, 1:25 p.m. ET to 3:10 p.m. ET).

A field of 20 Prototypes and 30 GTLM/GTD class cars are featured in what is a mandatory test session for the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, which takes place Jan. 27-28.

There’s plenty to see over the next three days, including the debut of Team Penske’s IMSA sports car team, featuring Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Simon Pagenaud, Ricky Taylor and Graham Rahal.

The weekend will feature a number of practice sessions, as well as qualifying Sunday for pit road spots and garage assignments for the Rolex 24.

And then there’s the IMSA Prototype Challenge, which will be a timed (one hour, 45 minutes) race on Saturday, starting at 1:15 p.m. ET.

Also taking part during the weekend is testing for the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.

Among other notable drivers that will be taking part in this weekend’s action are IndyCar drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay and Sebastian Bourdais (who was part of last year’s GTLM-winning team), as well as Formula One drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Here’s the information you need:

ENTRY LISTS

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – Prototype (20 entries), GT Le Mans (9 entries), GT Daytona (21 entries)

IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge – Grand Sport (28 entries), Touring Car (7 entries), Street Tuner (5 entries)

IMSA Prototype Challenge – Le Mans Prototype 3 (14 entries) and Mazda Prototype Challenge (11 entries)

DAY-BY-DAY SCHEDULES

FRIDAY, JANUARY 5TH

9:00 am – 9:30 am

IMSA Prototype Challenge practice session #1

9:45 am – 10:45 am

IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge practice session #1

11:00 am – 12:15 pm

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session #1

1:15 pm – 1:55 pm

IMSA Prototype Challenge practice session #2

2:10 pm – 3:10 pm

IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge practice session #2

3:30 pm – 5:30 pm

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session #2

8:00 pm

Garages close

SATURDAY, JANUARY 6TH

9:00 am – 9:20 am

IMSA Prototype Challenge qualifying

9:35 am – 10:35 am

IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge practice session #3

10:50 am – 12:20 pm

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session #3

1:25 pm – 3:10 pm

IMSA Prototype Challenge At DAYTONA (1 hour 45 minutes)

3:30 pm – 4:15 pm

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session #4

4:30 pm – 5:15 pm

IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge practice session #4

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session #5

9:00 pm

Garages close

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7TH

9:00 am – 10:30 am

IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge practice session #5

10:45 am – 11:15 am

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session #6

11:25 am – 11:40 am

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying session (GTD)

11:50 am – 12:05 pm

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying session (GTLM)

12:15 pm – 12:30 pm

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying session (P)

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge practice session #6

2:45 pm – 3:45 pm

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session #7

7:00 pm

Garages close

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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