Sunrise makes racing cars look like art at Daytona

When we last were able to come to the Classic 24, the clouds gathered and destroyed all chances of seeing a sunrise. That year saw an unusally cold Daytona awake to coats and cocoa rather than sunshine and orange juice.

But this year, as Groups G and A raced, the sun showed its face, and sent a kaleidoscope of colour into the air above the drivers. By the time that the sun eventually managed to make it above the back straight walls we’d had inky black, red, orange and stunning blue.

Below cars including Porsche 911s and 917s, Lolas, BMWs, Ferrari 430 and more continued to pound round, ticking off the laps as the end of this endurance test approached.

Photography by Ben Miles and Pete Summers.