Danny Sullivan joins United Autosports for Classic 24 at Daytona

Indy 500 winner Danny Sullivan will join United Autosports team principals Zak Brown and Richard Dean in the team's cars at the Classic 24 Hour at Daytona, Nov. 12-15.

United Autosports is best known for contesting GT races worldwide but the team also restores, renovates and race prepares historic road and racecars from its shop in Leeds, England. Brown, founder of Just Marketing International (JMI) and currently Group CEO of CSM Sport & Entertainment that acquired JMI in 2013, will race along with fellow UA partner Dean and 1985 Indy 500 winner and 1988 IndyCar champion Sullivan in UA's 1986 Porsche 962, 1981 Porsche 935 and a 1985 Ford Mustang in the Historic Sportscar Racing-organized event.

"This Classic event will be a very special experience. The cars, the incredible list of drivers heading there and of course Daytona itself – what a recipe for a fabulous race weekend!" said Sullivan (LEFT). "To drive with Zak, Richard and United Autosports, just adds to the experience. It's going to be awesome and very competitive.

"My first visit to Daytona was in 1971, I was 21 years old, and remember watching a Formula Vee race. What seemed like about 30 cars went off at the first corner and my mentor, Dr. Frank Falkner, asked if I really wanted to try this [racing at Daytona] and I said, 'Oh yes I do!' I went back the following year in an Elden PH10A Falconer Formula Ford 1600 and ran 152mph!

"I made my debut in the 24 Hours of Daytona at the wheel of a Lancia Stratos HF in 1979. I went on to race a Rondeau (1982), three Porsche 962s (1986/87/93), a Jaguar XJR-9 (1988), Porsche 911 (1994), two Riley & Scotts (1997/99) and a Porsche 911 GT1 (1998) at DIS. My best result was in '98 when I won GT1 and placed second overall having also finished second outright in '86.

"It is never dull at Daytona, there is always traffic, and it was always the way I wanted to start my season. The banking surprises a few people at the beginning but you get used to it pretty quickly." 

The team's Porsche 962 (TOP) placed second in the '86 season closing three-hour race at Daytona, third in the 1987 Daytona 24 Hours and ninth in the race the following year.

The "JLP-3" Porsche 935 (ABOVE) was the first racecar to ever win both the Daytona 24 and Sebring 12 Hour races overall in the same year (1982). The 750+ hp Porsche also competed at Daytona in 1981, winning an IMSA 250-mile race from pole.

Another project lovingly restored by United Autosports is the Scott Pruett 1986 IMSA GTO Championship-winning 1985 Roush Protofab (BELOW). Pruett finished seventh overall, and first in GTO, in the '86 3-hour race at Daytona.

The Classic 24 features six period-correct run groups rotating through a full 24 hours of racing on the 3.56-mile Daytona course. The run groups, which include various classes of similar-era racecars, each take to the track four times throughout the 24 hours. The competitors in each class covering the most total distance in their group's four sessions will be "crowned" Classic 24 at Daytona champions.