Fernando Alonso close to 2019 Daytona 24 Hours seat with WTR

By  Azertac 

Fernando Alonso is closing on a deal to return to the Daytona 24 Hours with the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac squad, a double winner of the event, according to Autosport.

Alonso, who made his final Formula 1 race appearance with McLaren last weekend in Abu Dhabi, recently hinted he was considering making a second outing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship curtain-raiser.

The double F1 world champion made his endurance racing debut at Daytona at the start of this year, sharing a United Autosports-run Ligier JS P217 with Lando Norris and Phil Hanson - although multiple brake issues and a throttle failure consigned the trio to 38th overall at the finish.

That was the prelude to a full World Endurance Championship campaign with the Toyota LMP1 team that Alonso has dovetailed with his McLaren commitments this year.

He moved a step closer to completing his unofficial 'triple crown' by securing Le Mans 24 Hours victory in June.

With IMSA splitting the Prototype class into separate divisions for LMP2 and Daytona Prototype International machinery for the 2019 season, Alonso would need to race for a DPi team to be in contention for an overall win at Daytona this time around.