At this point in motorsport history, the general consensus is that we all want to see recent Formula One retiree (for now) Fernando Alonso race every type of car possible. He’ll be back in a familiar series soon, though: Wayne Taylor Racing announced Alonso and fellow Toyota World Endurance Championship driver Kamui Kobayashi as part of its IMSA Rolex 24 dream team on Tuesday.
The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona starts the race season for the world’s most oddly capitalized series, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and teams enter multiple drivers per car to do stints over the course of the day (and night). As of this week, the top Daytona Prototype International class has a ridiculously good driver lineup in the Rolex 24 mix: Alonso and Kobayashi, former F1 drivers who now run for Toyota Gazoo Racing in WEC, along with IMSA regulars Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande.
Between them, Taylor and van der Zande have 24 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship class wins in five years, according to Racing Reference. Alonso won his first 24 Hours of Le Mans this year, and Kobayashi’s group finished just behind in second. Basically, this is going to be good.
It’ll be particularly good for Alonso to get another try at it, since he didn’t get much of a shot at the race in his debut earlier this year. His car finished 13th in the class and 38th overall with mechanical issues, which haunt him worse than any vengeful ghost a horror-movie writer could dream up.
Star Rolex 24 driver lineups like this one are common because it’s the series’ big race of the year, and there are somehow enough popular racing drivers out there willing to compete in a race this long. NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon even raced it alongside Jordan Taylor on the Wayne Taylor team last year, winning the top DPI class to get Cadillac’s first victory in the race.
With these four in the lineup this year, just give them the watches already—so long as Alonso’s mechanical ghosts are on break for the weekend, of course.