The Daytona 24 Hours will start on Saturday 27 January 2024 and features a record-breaking nine women on the entry list. The opening round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship will take place at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida and is one of the most anticipated events on the sports car endurance racing calendar.
The event that started in its current 24-hour guise in 1966 takes place on the Sports Car Course layout which is 3.56 miles (5.73km) long. A total of 59 cars will be taking to the track across four classes; GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD.
Drivers from across the world will take part in the event, including nine women - an increase of two from 2023. The Iron Dames team will consist entirely of female drivers, with Gradient Racing, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti and AF Corse also featuring women in their line-up.
Here’s everything you need to know about the female Daytona 24 Hours drivers:
Katherine Legge – Gradient Racing – GTD
Daytona 24 Hours starts: 11
Daytona 24 Hours best class finish: 2nd (2018)
Katherine Legge is set to make her 12th start at the Daytona 24 Hours after making her debut in the event in 2007, when it formed part of the Grand-Am Series. The British driver will race in the Acura NSX GT3 for Gradient Racing, alongside her team-mates Sheena Monk, Tatiana Calderon and Stevan McAleer.
A regular on the US sportscar racing scene since 2013, when she raced the innovative DeltaWing, Legge has four GTD class wins in IMSA to her name, all coming in Acura machinery. She competes full-time in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, and last year made her third appearance in IndyCar’s Indianapolis 500. She also has previous experience in Champ Car, DTM, Formula E and tested a Formula 1 car for Minardi in 2005 after becoming the first woman to win a Toyota Atlantic race at Long Beach earlier that year.
Sheena Monk – Gradient Racing – GTD
Daytona 24 Hours starts: 1
Daytona 24 Hours best class finish: 4th (2023)
Sheena Monk will join Katherine Legge in the Gradient Racing team for her second Daytona 24 Hours start. In her debut year in 2023, the American finished fourth in the GTD class with Legge, Mario Farnbacher and Marc Miller.
Monk is Legge’s full-time team-mate in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. She previously competed in the North American Lamborghini Super Trofeo Series and the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series.
Tatiana Calderon – Gradient Racing – GTD
Daytona 24 Hours starts: 1
Daytona 24 Hours best class finish: 16th (2020)
Tatiana Calderon returns to the Daytona 24 Hours for the first time since 2020 as part of the Gradient Racing team alongside Legge, Monk and Stevan McAleer. The Columbian racer, whose prior Daytona experience in a Grasser-run Lamborghini Huracan GT3 was cut short by a fire, has extensive endurance racing experience from spending two years with the Richard Mille Racing LMP2 squad in the European Le Mans Series and the World Endurance Championship. She also raced a P2 car in the ELMS last year with Team Virage.
The former Formula 2, IndyCar and Super Formula driver was the first woman to stand on the podium in British Formula 3, as well as being the first to lead a lap in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. Calderon's best result in single-seaters came when she finished second to Pietro Fittipaldi in the 2015–16 MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship.
Rahel Frey – Iron Dames – GTD
Daytona 24 Hours starts: 2
Daytona 24 Hours best class finish: 16th (2020)
Rahel Frey will compete for the all-female Iron Dames squad run by Iron Lynx, alongside her team-mates from 2023 Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Doriane Pin. The Iron Dames project manager is the most experienced of the quartet that will share the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, having also driven with Legge, Calderon and Christina Nielsen in 2020.
A former Audi factory GT driver, the Swiss made the first of five Le Mans 24 Hours starts in 2010 after a race-winning campaign in the German Formula 3 Championship. Together with Gatting and Bovy, Frey finished second in the World Endurance Championship’s GTE Am class last year and won the final race of the year in Bahrain.
Sarah Bovy – Iron Dames – GTD
Daytona 24 Hours starts: 1
Daytona 24 Hours best class finish: 18th (2023)
Sarah Bovy is now an established part of the Iron Dames lineup and makes her second crack at Daytona 24 Hours with the Iron Lynx-run Lamborghini. The second-generation Belgian racer joined the team in 2021, giving her career stability for the first time, and has since been a staple of its lineup in the World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Bovy became the first female driver to score a class pole in the WEC at Monza in 2022, and set a further three pole positions last season. Her all-female team narrowly missed out on a GTE Am podium at Le Mans in 2023, ultimately finishing fourth with Frey and Gatting.
Doriane Pin – Iron Dames – GTD
Daytona 24 Hours starts: 1
Daytona 24 Hours best class finish: 18th (2023)
Doriane Pin will return to Daytona 24 Hours after making her debut in 2023 with the Iron Dames. Newly appointed to the Mercedes junior roster, the French driver will contest the 2024 F1 Academy Championship with Prema after finishing second in a part-time 2023 Formula 4 South East Asia Championship programme, her first foray into single-seaters.
Although only 20, Pin has picked up plenty of experience in sportscar racing since joining the Dames in 2021. The 2022 Ferrari Challenge title-winner also won the Gold Cup category in that year’s Spa 24 Hours alongside her Iron Dames team-mates Frey, Bovy and Gatting. She also performed strongly last year in her first full season in the World Endurance Championship with Prema in the LMP2 category alongside Lamborghini factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Daniil Kvyat.
Michelle Gatting – Iron Dames – GTD
Daytona 24 Hours starts: 1
Daytona 24 Hours best class finish: 18th (2023)
Michelle Gatting has been part of the Iron Dames lineup since Deborah Mayer’s team made its bow in the 2018 Gulf 12 Hours, and makes her second attempt at the 2024 Daytona 24 Hours alongside her regular team-mates Pin, Bovy and Frey. The Danish driver is set to pull double duty across the World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series’ LMGT3 categories with the Dames in 2024.
Like Pin, Gatting is a champion in Ferrari Challenge Europe in 2021 and was previously a podium finisher in the one-make VW Scirocco R-Cup in 2013.
Ashton Harrison – Wayne Taylor Racing – GTD
Daytona 24 Hours starts: 1
Daytona 24 Hours best class finish: 6th (2023)
Ashton Harrison will join Wayne Taylor Racing alongside team-mates Kyle Marcelli, Danny Formal and Graham Doyle in their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 for her second start at Daytona. The American driver started her career in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo and has several class wins, before graduating successfully to GT3 racing.
Harrison claimed the GT World Challenge America Pro-Am title in 2022 with Mario Farnbacher in a Racer’s Edge Acura NSX, with the duo finishing second in the Pro ranks last season alongside a part-time foray into IMSA.
Lilou Wadoux – AF Corse – LMP2
Daytona 24 Hours starts: 0
Daytona 24 Hours best class finish: 0
Ferrari-contracted Lilou Wadoux is making her Daytona 24 Hours debut in an AF Corse-run ORECA-Gibson 07 that she will share with Nicklas Nielsen, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Luis Perez Companc. She is the only female driver competing in the LMP2 class.
The French driver became the first female to score a class win in the World Endurance Championship last year when her Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari scooped the GTE Am victory at Spa.
Previously a winner in the Porsche Sprint Challenge in 2021, Wadoux had impressed in the Alpine Elf Europa Cup before earning a seat in Richard Mille Racing’s ORECA for the 2022 WEC alongside rally legend Sebastien Ogier. She raced for AF's P2 operation in IMSA last year at Watkins Glen.
History of women at Daytona 24 Hours
The first year of Daytona 24 Hours to feature female drivers was 1966, when two all-women's teams entered the endurance race. Rosemary Smith and Sierra ‘Smokey’ Drolet drove their Sunbeam Alpine to 30th overall and sixth in their S2.0 class.
Drolet entered the endurance race four times between 1966 and 1970 but also regularly competed in Sports Car Club of America events. The American endurance specialist had two wins during her career including the 1960 Preliminary Courtland (Ladies + GT) and the 1962 Nassau (Ladies).
Smith also had a successful motorsport career, winning the 1958 and 1965 Tulip Cup with her team-mate Valerie Domleo. The Irish driver also won the 1964 Circuit of Ireland Rally (Ladies’ Prize), the 1969 Cork 20 Rally, several Ladies’ prizes at the Scottish Rally and the Alpine Rally.
Alongside Drolet and Smith's 1966 all-women team were the Ring Free Motor Maids - consisting of Janet Guthrie, Donna Mae Mims and Suzy Dietrich, whose Sunbeam finished 32nd overall. The trio were the first women to take a class win at Daytona 24 Hours, as they were the only team to finish in the S1.6 class.
Most female entries into the Daytona 24 Hours have been as part of mixed teams, although all-women teams have taken part in 1966, 1967, 1977, 1994, 2020 and 2023. Katherine Legge has the most Daytona 24 Hours starts, and is entering her twelfth year in the endurance race in 2024.
The record was previously held by Lyn St. James who started seven races. St. James had two GTO class wins in 1987 and 1990 and was also the first woman to win the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award in 1992. She held the record as its eldest recipient, aged 45, for 30 years until Jimmie Johnson took the record at 46 in 2022.
Milka Duno has the best outright result as a woman at Daytona 24 Hours, finishing second overall in 2007, alongside her team-mates Patrick Carpentier, Darren Manning and Ryan Dalziel aboard a SAMAX Motorsport Riley-Pontiac. Duno had previously won three Grand-Am races with Andy Wallace between 2004-05 and went on to compete in IndyCar.
Lilian Bryner also had a successful Daytona 24 Hours career, claiming three top-five finishes between 1995 and 1999, including two wins in the GTS-2 class. The Swiss was best known for racing in the FIA GT Championship, notably winning the Spa 24 Hours outright in 2004. She also finished second in the GT2 class and ninth overall in the 1994 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Kathy Rude entered four races between 1980 and 1983. Rude competed in IMSA and Formula Ford and won the GTU class of the 1982 Daytona 24 Hours with her team-mates Lee Mueller and Allan Moffat.
Only seven women have won their class when competing at the Daytona 24 Hours. In addition to Guthrie, Mims, Dietrich, Rude, St. James and Bryner, Claudia Hurtgen also claimed GTS-2 spoils with a Roock Racing Porsche in 1997.
Female class-winning Daytona 24 Hours drivers
| Drivers | Year | Class | Team |
| Suzy Dietrich, Janet Guthrie & Donna Mae Mims | 1966 | S1.6 | Autosport |
| Kathy Rude, Lee Mueller & Allan Moffat | 1982 | GTU | Kent Racing |
| Lyn St. James, Tom Gloy, Bill Elliott & Scott Pruett | 1987 | GTO | Roush Racing |
| Lyn St. James, Robby Gordon & Calvin Fish | 1990 | GTO | Tru-Cur/Roush Racing |
| Lilian Bryner, Enzo Calderari, Renato Mastropietro & Ulli Richter | 1995 | GTS-2 | Stadler Motorsport |
| Lilian Bryner, Enzo Calderari, Ulli Richter | 1996 | GTS-2 | Stadler Motorsport |
| Claudia Hurtgen, Ralf Kelleners, Patrice Goueslard & Andre Ahrle | 1997 | GTS-2 | Roock Racing |
