Looking ahead to the first endurance classic of the season

The Daytona 24 Hours kicks off the sportscar endurance racing season on January 30/31, but ironically it's a host of top liners from IndyCar and NASCAR within the entry who have the best chance of making waves at the top end of the Castrol Rankings.

NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson is the highest-placed Daytona starter in the Castrol Rankings, currently sixth overall in the standings. With our 12-month rollover system in place, the results of last season's Daytona 24 Hours, which took place a week earlier in the calendar year than it does in 2010, have already been discarded.

A strong result this weekend will move Johnson back ahead of rally ace Mikko Hirvonen into fifth place. Moreover, a victory would put him very close to fourth-placed Rubens Barrichello, and well-primed to overhaul the Brazilian when the NASCAR season gets going in mid-February.

Johnson again shares with Grand-Am champions Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty (ranked equal 75th) and 1996 CART World Series winner Jimmy Vasser in the GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Riley-Chevrolet.

IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti will almost certainly move up from his ninth place in the Castrol Rankings. He shares a Chip Ganassi Racing/Sabates Riley-BMW with Scott Dixon (10th in the Rankings), Juan Pablo Montoya (25th) and Jamie McMurray (81st).

A win for this car would move Scotsman Franchitti above Hirvonen, Formula 1 racer Mark Webber and IndyCar rival Ryan Briscoe and into sixth place in the Castrol Rankings. Unlike last year, Briscoe does not compete at Daytona in 2010 as his Penske team has withdrawn from Grand-Am.

Formula 1 refugee Sebastien Bourdais can look forward to climbing the Castrol Rankings table from his current 36th spot. He lines up in a two-car Level 5 Motorsports Riley-BMW team that also includes fellow Champ Car race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, endurance stars Christophe Bouchut, Emmanuel Collard, Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen, and FIA GT2 champion Richard Westbrook - the Briton makes his prototype racing debut and should leap from his current 337th place.

Another Briton, Justin Wilson, drives the other Ganassi car. Sharing with former Grand-Am champions Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas and NASCAR part-timer Max Papis, IndyCar race winner Wilson is among the pre-event favourites and should break into the Castrol Rankings top 50 from his current 53rd position. Another IndyCar racer likely to shine is Raphael Matos, who joins last year's winning Brumos Racing Riley-Porsche team.

And that's not counting the GT class, which among others includes former NASCAR champ Bobby Labonte and reigning American Le Mans Series GT2 title holders Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long.

These are the drivers from the Daytona Prototype ranks currently lying in the top 200 of the Castrol Rankings: