The countdown to the debut of the Ferrari 296 GT3 is over, with Maranello’s newest model set to feature in the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 61st edition of America’s leading endurance race held at the Daytona International Speedway. The opening act of the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship season will feature four 296 GT3 entrants, including the crew made up of official drivers Pier Guidi-Calado-Serra-Rigon in GTD Pro class, who will head off from ninth spot on the grid, as will Fuoco-Lacorte-Sernagiotto-Balzan in GTD class after an identical result in qualifying. The race gets the green light at 13.40 local time on Saturday, 28 January. Daytona’s name is intrinsically linked to the world-famous endurance race, the 24 Hours, held in January, representing the first major event of the international motorsport season. This year sees the 61st edition of the event, with 61 crews competing, sub-divided into GTP (a platform debuting in the race), LMP2 and LMP3 class prototypes, and the closed-wheel cars of GTD Pro and GTD (GT3 platform). Ferrari have won 5 overall and 16 class wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona, the last of which was in 2014 when Pier Guidi alongside Americans Tucker-Sweedler-Bell-Segal won the GTD class in a 458 Italia GT3. The date 1967 remains indelibly stamped in endurance racing history, when Ferrari celebrated a podium lockout with a side-by-side parade finish: first were Lorenzo Bandini and Chris Amon in a 330 P3/P4, ahead of Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti in a 330 P4 and Pedro Rodriguez and Jean Guichet in a 412 P.