The Kiwi flavor at this year’s 24 Hours of Daytona just got stronger with the addition of Jaxon Evans to the GTD class.
The 26-year-old will team up with Julien Andlauer, Kay van Berlo and Alan Metni in a Kelly-Moss Inc and Riley Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R.
He’s got good company in his teammates, Andlauer a past winner in both the French and German Carrera Cup. He also competed in last year’s 24 Hours of Le Man and finished second in class.
Van Berlo, from the Netherlands, is a 22-year-old Carrera Cup racer in North America. He had a superb 2022 and finished second in the championship, winning six race along the way.
Metni also raced that competition, finishing 13th overall with several top 10 results in an extremely large field.
For Evans it’s a massive start to 2023 following a big 2022 which saw him race in select rounds of the Nurburgring Endurance Series, ADAC GT Masters and the Porsche Super Cup.
He also competed in the 24 Hours of Spa, 24 Hours of Nurburgring and Bathurst 1000.
It’s fair to say in a short career to date Evans has established himself as one of New Zealand’s top endurance racers.
He will have to work at Daytona, however, competing in a field of familiar names and faces from across the globe including Kevin and Jan Magnussen, Kyle Kirkwood, Maximilian Gotz and Ryan Briscoe among others.
Evans inclusion in the Daytona 24 makes it five Kiwis on the grid now. Scott McLaughlin will compete in LMP2 with Tower Motorsports whilst an impressive three Kiwis will take part in the Hypercar class.
This includes Earl Bamber in the Cadillac Racing #2, Scott Dixon in the Cadillac Racing #1 and Brendon Hartley in the Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti Autosport collaboration.
The 24 Hours of Daytona is set to be a big one with over 60 cars on the grid. It takes place on January 28-29 local time.
Further information, including how to watch, will be mentioned closer to race time.
