Whelen Engineering Racing Gearing Up For The Twice Around The Clock Event At Daytona

Story By: WHELEN ENGINEERING RACING – DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Whelen Engineering Racing will look to make a big start to the team’s 2018 IMSA campaign next weekend as the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will kick off with the 56th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona (2:00 PM ET FOX live coverage of Saturday’s race start) at the Daytona International Speedway.

The 2018 season will see the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac co-driven by Eric Curran (US) and Felipe Nasr (BR) through the full IMSA schedule, which will feature both sprint and endurance events on a collection of the best tracks in North America. Curran has long been a winning fixture in the Whelen Engineering effort, while Nasr returns to the team for his first full IMSA WeatherTech championship season, having raced with the squad in the 2013 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Whelen Engineering Racing will welcome the 2018 Sunoco Whelen Challenge winner Stuart Middleton (UK) to the lineup for the Rolex 24, as well as Mike Conway (UK) for the Daytona, Sebring, and Petit Le Mans rounds of the event schedule.

The team is proud to once again carry the red and white colors for Whelen Engineering. After starting in a garage in 1952 when George Whelen III invented the first rotating aviation beacon, Whelen Engineering has emerged as a continuing American success story. Based in Connecticut, Whelen is a leader in automotive and emergency vehicle lighting as well as in the industrial and aviation fields. Whelen, which recently announced the continuation of its designation as the “Official Warning Lights of NASCAR,” has a strong presence across motorsports including the Whelen Hall of Champions in the NASCAR Hall of Fame as well as with the NASCAR Euro Whelen Series.

The 2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona saw the Whelen entry targeting a strong start to its defense of the 2016 IMSA Team and Driver Championships. The team had to fight back from an incident in traffic that cost the effort several laps. Undaunted, the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac returned to battle and covered 2,274-miles (639 laps) during the rain-plagued 24 event for a sixth-place result. The team went on to break through for a victory at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to notch its first victory with the Cadillac DPi-V.R platform.

As new teams and manufacturers join the series in the Prototype class, the 2018 IMSA season promises to be the most competitive and compelling yet. Under the guidance of Gary Nelson and with the integration of veteran Tim Keene as Performance Coordinator for the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing entry, the Chris Mitchum-directed program has focused on continuing to develop the team in preparation for the outstanding competition that is expected in 2018.

The Whelen Engineering Racing squad looks forward to utilizing the lessons learned in 2017 with the Cadillac DPi-V.R into another run at the championship starting with the Rolex 24 At Daytona.