AF Corse to Tackle Rolex 24 with Italian GT Class Champions

AF Corse has confirmed that it will participate in the Rolex 24 at Daytona with a Ferrari entry involving the Pro-Am champions from this year’s Italian GT Sprint Championship.

Matteo Cressoni and Simon Mann will be joined by Ferrari factory drivers Nicklas Nielsen and Daniel Serra for the GT Daytona entry into the IMSA season-opener on Jan. 30-31.

Cressoni and Mann clinched the Italian GT Sprint Pro-Am class title together driving an AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 and will be utilizing the same package at Daytona.

AF Corse’s involvement in the Florida enduro had already been confirmed through the Italian outfit’s support of the Cetilar Racing Dallara LMP2 effort.

The team run by Amato Ferrari last contested Daytona with an entry under its own name in 2015 when it took a fourth-place finish in the GTD class with a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 driven by Matt Griffin, Michele Rugolo, Pasin Lathouras and Rui Aguas.

AF Corse has supported several other Rolex 24 entries since then, including cars running under the SMP Racing and Spirit of Race banners.

Factory driver Nielsen, who recently won the WEC GTE-Am title with AF Corse, is set for his Daytona debut while Serra already has a handful of Rolex 24 drives under his belt.

Like Serra, Cressoni has previous IMSA experience with the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari team, including sharing one of its cars with Mann’s father Peter at Daytona in 2016.

Cressoni, Mann and Nielsen also co-drove a GT3 Ferrari part of last year’s Italian GT Endurance Championship.