Lance Stroll will make his sports car and 24 hour race debut when the Canadian competes in the Rolex 24 At Daytona with Ford Chip Ganassi Racing next month (30-31 Jan). The 17-year-old will co-drive a Ford EcoBoost Prototype with Brendon Hartley (NZ), Alex Wurz (A) and Andy Priaulx (GB) in Florida’s legendary twice-around-the-clock race.
Geneva-based Stroll, who last month was invited by Williams Martini Racing to join its Young Driver Development Programme, has only previously competed in single-seaters. Stroll will drive the 3.5-litre, 600-bhp Ford for the first time during the three-day “Roar Before The 24” test (8-10 Jan) as well as acquainting himself to the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway track he has never previously visited. Indianapolis-based Ford Chip Ganassi Racing will be bidding for a seventh victory in the annual Daytona race following wins in 2006-08, ’11, ’13 & 15.
Stroll began his motorsport career in karts in 2008, recording numerous race and championship wins in his native Canada and North America, before racing karts in Europe from 2011 and then in World Championship events. Lance won the 2014 Italian Formula 4 Championship and New Zealand-based 2015 Toyota Racing Series. He placed fifth in his maiden FIA Formula 3 European Championship this year, winning a race outright and registering 17 top-six overall race finishes. He will remain in the Euro F3 Series with the Italian Prema Powerteam in 2016 who he has raced with in Europe since 2014.
The last time Stroll competed in North America was in the 2014 Florida Winter Series in which he achieved podium placings at the Palm Beach International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. Eight sessions of “Roar” testing commences on Friday 8 January at Daytona.
“I’m focused on single-seaters in 2016 but when an opportunity comes along to compete in one of the world’s greatest and definitely North America’s most famous sports car race, with one of America’s most successful teams in Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, and racing at the legendary Daytona International Speedway, it was too great an offer to turn down.
“I’m very excited to be driving for Chip [Ganassi] whose various auto racing teams have been ultra-successful for over 25 years. Ganassi’s Rolex 24 history is unrivalled having achieved six wins and two second place finishes between 2006-2015 and is the only team ever to win the race outright over three consecutive years.
“The Roar will give me an opportunity to acclimatize myself to driving a prototype and learning the DIS track for the first time. I’m looking forward to working with Brendon [Hartley], Alex [Wurz] and Andy [Priaulx] who each bring a lot of experience to our car, and of course the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team. The race week itself should be a real blast! The test and race will help keep me race-sharp and in shape over the winter in readiness for the Euro F3 season that starts in early April.”