The Daytona 24 is the biggest race in sim racing. Not the most prestigious, not the fastest — the biggest. In January 2026, 21,028 drivers took the start across 104 splits, completing 3,535,282 laps between them. No other event on any platform puts that many people on the same track on the same weekend.
The thing people get wrong about Daytona is that they treat it like a long sprint race. It isn't. It's a logistics exercise with some driving attached, and the teams that finish well are the ones who sorted the boring stuff out weeks earlier.
Here's everything you need to enter and, more importantly, to still be running at hour 23.
What the iRacing Daytona 24 actually is
It's a full 24-hour multi-class endurance race on the Daytona International Speedway road course, run as an official iRacing Special Event with driver swaps, a dynamic day-to-night cycle and live weather. It's branded the iRacing Daytona 24h powered by VCO.
It mirrors the real thing — the 24 Hours of Daytona is the opening round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup within the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship — and iRacing runs its version roughly a week before the real Rolex 24. In 2026 the sim date was set to January 24 with a 1:00 PM start, so you get the same light cycle the real teams face.
The week before, iRacing runs the ROAR: an LMP3, GT4 and Touring Car event inspired by the real Roar Before the Rolex 24. It's the traditional warm-up weekend and a good sighter if you've never done a team race.
When it runs and the time slots
The 2026 running was January 16–18, with four start slots:
- Friday 22:00 GMT
- Saturday 07:00 GMT
- Saturday 12:00 GMT
- Saturday 16:00 GMT
Four slots is the point. Pick the one where your whole crew is awake for the parts of the race that matter. If you're a European team, the Saturday 12:00 slot puts your night stints in the small hours — exactly what you want for the drivers who are good at nursing a car, and exactly what you don't want for the guy who's fastest but fades after midnight.
The 2027 dates weren't published at the time of writing, but it has consistently landed on the mid-January weekend before the real race.
Entry requirements
Straightforward, and cheaper than people assume:
- A valid iRacing subscription. Pricing rose on 18 August 2026 — monthly $13 to $14.75, annual $110 to $124.50. Car and track prices did not change. Full breakdown on my what iRacing actually costs page.
- D Road licence at 4.0 or above. This is the bit that catches new members. Not a high bar, but you can't build 4.0 in a week if you're incident-prone — start early and read my guide on raising your Safety Rating.
- Daytona International Speedway – Road Course, $14.95.
- At least one eligible car, $12.95 each.
No entry fee on top, no qualifying event to get through.
The car classes
Three classes race together, split into four categories in the UI: GTP and HYP at the front, LMP2 in the middle, GT3 (IMSA GTD) at the back.
GTP & HYP is the sim's five-car top class — the Porsche 963, Cadillac V-Series.R, BMW M Hybrid V8, Acura ARX-06 and the Ferrari 499P. The first four are LMDh cars; the 499P is the only LMH machine and behaves differently under deployment. My best iRacing GTP cars ranking goes through the trade-offs, and the Porsche 963 guide covers the class default — it ships with a dedicated Daytona 24H official setup. Understand how the hybrid system works before you commit; it's automatic now, but it changes corner exit.
LMP2 is a one-make class — the Dallara P217, and nothing else. It's the cheapest way into the prototype field and arguably the best racing on the grid, because everyone's in identical machinery. I've written a full P217 guide covering the post-revamp spec.
GT3 (GTD) is the ten-car IMSA-spec GT3 field. iRacing publishes a custom Balance of Performance for the event on the forums ahead of the weekend, separate from the normal series BoP, so don't assume the car that's quick in weekly racing is the pick here. My best GT3 cars piece is a starting point, but check the event BoP thread before you buy anything.
If you want a fuller picture of how these three classes coexist week to week, the IMSA series guide covers the same multi-class format over shorter distances.
Team rules that catch people out
This is where entries die. Read this section twice.
Minimum two drivers, maximum sixteen. You can technically register a one-person team for the personal challenge, but iRacing does not score solo entries in the results.
The Fair Share rule. Every declared driver must complete at least a quarter of an equal share of the team's laps. Equal share is total team laps divided by number of drivers; fair share is 25% of that, rounded up. Four drivers, 400 laps completed: equal share is 100, fair share is 25 laps each. If any declared driver misses it, the whole team is disqualified.
The trap is obvious once you see it: if you split the race into four equal stints and your third driver crashes out on hour 18, your fourth driver never gets in the car and you're DQ'd. Get everyone a short stint in early. I always want every driver to have banked their fair share before the halfway point.
The Declare Drivers rule. Every driver who will race must be declared at registration. Undeclared members can join as spotter or crew but cannot drive. Declare someone who then doesn't show up and they fail fair share — team disqualified. Only declare people who will definitely be there.
Driver swaps. The car must be stopped in your own pit box. The outgoing driver exits, the incoming driver clicks [Drive], and a 30-second timer runs before you can pull away. It starts when the car comes to a stop, not when the swap happens, and it counts down during pit service — so a swap plus a full service costs almost nothing extra. It does not run while you're being towed or serving a penalty. If a driver goes AFK, teammates get a [Remove Driver] button after five seconds stationary.
Six concurrent connections. Only six team members can be in the session at once, though up to 64 can rotate through. Plan handovers so the driver who needs to get in isn't locked out by spectating friends.
Session format and incident limits
The 2026 event ran with:
- Warmup: 30 minutes
- Qualifying: attached and solo, 8 minutes for 2 laps
- Race: 24 hours, dynamic weather
- Splits by iRating
- Field size: 60
- Stop-and-go at 100 incident points, then every 20 after
- No DQ limit
That incident limit is the sum of every driver on your team, not per driver. One hundred points across 24 hours sounds generous. It isn't, in a 60-car multi-class field. Two drivers having a scrappy night will eat it.
Splits are by iRating, and with over 100 splits the spread of ability is enormous. Understanding how iRacing splits work sets your expectations properly — you are not racing the aliens on the broadcast.
How I'd actually approach it
Three things separate the teams that finish from the teams that don't.
Stint discipline. Your fastest lap is worth nothing. Pick a target time you can hit within two tenths every lap for a full fuel run, and hold it. Engineers don't want a hero, they want a metronome.
Traffic. The banking and the bus stop are where multi-class races go wrong. In GT3 you'll be lapped constantly; in GTP you'll be doing the lapping. Decide your default — I hold my line and lift early rather than diving — and communicate it. Get Crew Chief set up properly, because the standard spotter isn't enough at night.
Tyres and fuel. Double-stinting tyres is usually free lap time at Daytona if your driver isn't abusive. Work out degradation in practice, not in the race. My tyre wear and tyre pressure guides cover the fundamentals; pit decision making covers the call itself.
The event runs open setup, so bring something. Start from the official Daytona baseline in the garage rather than a hotlap setup — my Mercedes AMG GT3 Daytona setup, the GT3 setup database and the full setup archive are all free. Check whatever you run passes tech inspection before race week — ride-height rules have bitten a lot of people since the 2026 changes. The fixed vs open explainer covers the alternative.
Who wins this thing
In 2026 Drago Racing took a maiden top-split overall win in GTP, Grid-and-Go.com eSports won LMP2 and Williams F1 Team Gaming won GTD — full-time esports outfits with engineers and reserve drivers. Team entries were up year on year too: 6,072 unique teams against 4,703 in 2025, even though total drivers dipped from the 2025 record of 23,397.
You're not racing those people. You're racing the other teams in your split who also want to finish. That's a fight worth having.
FAQ
What licence do you need for the iRacing Daytona 24? A D Road licence at 4.0 or above, plus an active subscription. You also need to own the Daytona road course and at least one eligible car.
Can you race the Daytona 24 solo? You can register a one-person team, but iRacing won't score it in the results. The event minimum is two drivers and the maximum is sixteen.
How much does it cost to enter? There's no entry fee. You need the subscription, the Daytona road course at $14.95, and one eligible car at $12.95. If you already own a GT3 car and Daytona, it costs you nothing extra.
How do driver swaps work? The car has to be stopped in your own pit stall. The current driver exits, the next one clicks [Drive], and a 30-second timer runs from the moment the car stopped before you can leave. The timer runs during pit service, so combining a swap with fuel and tyres is basically free.
What happens if a driver doesn't complete their fair share? The entire team is disqualified — not just that driver. Fair share is a quarter of an equal share of the team's total laps, rounded up. Get every declared driver a stint in early rather than gambling on the schedule holding together for 24 hours.
Is the Daytona 24 fixed or open setup? Open. You bring your own setup, and iRacing publishes a custom event BoP for the GT3 class on the forums beforehand.