Stuttgart must have booked every hotel room in Florida for the busload of Porsche works drivers it’s sent to race at this year’s Daytona Rolex 24 Hour endurance race.

Stuttgart has a two-car works team competing in the 2014 Tudor United Sportscar Championship. In 991 RSRs numbered 911 & 912, fast boys Patrick Pilet (above), Nick Tandy (below) and Richard Lietz pilot #911, while the relentless Patrick Long, Jörg Bergmeister and recent works appointment, Michael Christensen, share #912.

Porsche Works Drivers in customer race teams

In the GTD category, Marco Holzer runs with Alex Job, Mark Lieb is with Patrick Dempsey (nice),  newly-nicknamed Hasselhenzler (Wolf Henzler) is with Magnus Racing and Timo Bernhard drives for Park Place Motorsports. Brendon Hartley adds Kiwi colour to the Dinan BMW-powered Starworks prototype. Note the drinks tube, as Brendon needs feeding up! Of course I have an old BMW, so there’s my excuse to cheer for him.

The Porsche Juniors are also out in force. Klaus Bachler drives for Dempsey (why is there no one called Makepeace on the grid), Alex Riberas is with Alex Job and man to watch, Connor de Phillippi is with Timo in the Park Place car. The new RSR livery for Daytona looks good:

Winner of the €200k Porsche Supercup Scholarship prize, New Zealand’s Earl Bamber, was signed up to drive the Mühlner Motorsport 911 on the strength of his Porsche pace to date. “We managed to put something together for Daytona at the end of December,” said Bamber. “There was no time for a New Years party, as I had to get to Florida and start practicing.

“We did a three-day test at Daytona: incredible. The banking makes you dizzy the first few times around. Driving on an oval is spectacular and you’re holding on pretty tight doing 300 kmh through the steep banking, tilted right over on your side. It’s a special place.”

It’s my birthday this weekend, so I have organised peace and quiet and an Internet stream. Also got a meeting to discuss a book deal tomorrow. It’s all kicking off!