The Bucket List Episode 7: DAYTONA!

 Say what you will about American motorsports, but if you're a fan of endurance racing and looking for something a little bit different from the World Endurance Championship, then the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is where you'll want to look. The championship visits some of the most iconic tracks in North America, including Sebring, Laguna Seca, Road America and Long Beach. The season-opener, meanwhile, is none other than the 24 Hours of Daytona, and that's where I headed for this episode of the Bucket List.

If you're looking for a variety of cars, then you'll also find it in the WSCC. For GT cars, you have customer teams in GT3 cars (GTD) and manufacturer teams in Le Mans-spec GTE cars (GTLM), while other teams compete in LMP2 cars (P2) and the IMSA-specific DPi class. Based on LMP2 prototypes, but with manufacturer-specific styling and engines, these cars represent the pinnacle of endurance racing in the US.

I'd be driving a BMW M8 GTLM for this race, with a field comprised of GTLM and DPi cars and a full day-night cycle. From the off, I pushed hard to pull out an early lead, leading to a couple of high-speed lockups. I soon settled into a rhythm, however, and focused on maintaining my class lead while making way for incoming DPis. You know that feeling when you get into that rhythm? That's the best feeling, when you're no longer consciously driving the car, when time goes into a blur as you're just in the zone. That's what I look for every time I load up a race.

I used the Rollovers American Endurance Pack for this event, containing DPi and GTLM cars, which can be downloaded here. As I have stated with the Le Mans post, I have since switched to using other GTE cars, including URD's Bayro (BMW M8), Detroit (Ford GT) and Porsche 911 RSR 18, and the Ferrari 488 GTE "upgrade kit" from RaceDepartment (registration required).

I used the Terra21 Daytona circuit from RaceDepartment for this event. Since this event (which was in late-March), the Reboot Team has released an improved Daytona, which I highly recommend. You can download it here.