In Pictures: Porsche prepares for Daytona 24 Hours

Seven Porsche works drivers are preparing for the Daytona 24 Hours, the first major endurance event of the season and the first race in the American Grand-Am Series. The 2011 running of this classic will take place at the Daytona International Speedway, Florida, on January 29th and Porsche's drivers will race for customer teams in both the prototype and GT sports car classes.

In the prototype class, Porsche's Jörg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) will drive a Porsche-Riley for Flying Lizard Motorsports. Their 500bhp, six-cylinder car won in 2009; Bergmeister himself has also already charted a victory in the event, winning in 2003 in a 911 GT3 RS. American drivers Seth Neiman and Johannes van Overbeek will also race for Flying Lizard, and Action Express Racing is to run two V8-engined Porsche-Rileys, one to be driven by Terry Borcheller (USA) and Joao Barbosa (Portugal), last year's winners.

Five more Porsche works drivers will compete in the GT class, driving the 911 GT3 Cup. Marco Holzer (Germany) and Richard Lietz (Austria) will drive for Magnus Racing; Patrick Pilet (France) for TRG/Black Swan Racing/GMC Racing; Wolf Henzler (Germany) for TRG Racing; and Marc Lieb (Germany) for Brumos Racing. Lieb's teammate is Hurley Haywood (USA), a Daytona legend who has won the events five times overall and charted six class wins. Other drivers competing in a 911 GT3 Cup are Martin Ragginger (Austria), Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) and the current Carrera Cup Germany champ, Nicolas Armindo (France).

Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport, says: “This race right at the start of the season is a huge challenge for our teams and drivers. It’s particularly appealing that drivers from many different race series come together on neutral ground in Daytona. It’ll be especially exciting to see how our customer team Flying Lizard Motorsports goes out to bat in the prototype class.”

Porsche's first overall win at Daytona was in 1968, when Vic Elford, Jochen Neerpasch, Rolf Stommelen, Jo Siffert and Hans Herrmann took victory with the 907. With 22 overall wins and 72 class triumphs, Porsche is by far the most successful manufacturer in the event's 45-year history; it won 11 times in a row overall 1977-1987 and took 21 successive class wins 1966-87 (the race was cancelled in 1974 due to the oil crisis). Its most recent wins have been in 2003 (Jörg Bergmeister, Timo Bernhard, Kevin Buckler and Michael Schrom, 911 GT3 RS) and 2010 (Joao Barbosa, Terry Borcheller, Ryan Dalziel and Mike Rockenfeller, Porsche-Riley prototype).

Pictured top-to-bottom are: the Flying Lizard Porsche-Riley prototype of Bergmeister/Long; the Brumos Racing 911 GT3 Cup (Lieb/Haywood); the Magnus Racing 911 GT3 Cup (Holzer/Lietz); and the TRG/Black Swan/GMC Racing 911 GT3 Cup (Pilet).

Tags: GT3 Cup Flying Lizard Magnus Racing Brumos Racing TRG Racing Hartmut Kristen Marc Lieb Wolf Henzler Patrick Pilet Richard Lietz Marco Holzer Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister Porsche-Riley endurance racing Grand-Am Daytona 24 Hours