DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams ran a full 10 hours at Daytona International Speedway Saturday across three sessions, including a night session.
With 17 GT cars, split nine Grand Touring Daytona Pro and eight Grand Touring Daytona, all 38 cars entered for the IMSA-sanctioned November test hit the 3.56-mile track for the first and only time this weekend.
The No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 topped the overall timesheets in Practice 3 with the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 leading Practice 4 and the No. 25 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 leading Practice 5.
Of note, NASCAR rising star Connor Zilisch took his first laps in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R in the morning session and met with reporters shortly thereafter. A further follow-up on Zilisch’s test day and fellow NASCAR full-timer A.J. Allmendinger’s return to Acura Meyer Shank Racing after four years away will follow in the coming days.
With prototypes in the spotlight on Friday, the GT classes joined the fun on Saturday with a handful of either updated or brand-new models joining the track.
The new Lamborghini Temerario GT3 took its first North American laps. Andrea Caldarelli, Marco Mapelli and Franck Perera are sharing the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports-prepared car this weekend, which features Lamborghini colors of Verde Mantis (green), Nero Noctis (black), Bianco Alpi (white) and Rosso Sangue (red) that previously was on the Lamborghini SC63 GTP car. Pfaff’s traditional plaid is not on here, yet.
“It’s always special to do the first few laps of a new car in North America,” Caldarelli said after the first session. “We did all the runs we planned and didn’t have any issues, so that was pretty positive. We started to do some setup work.
“We’ve never driven this car with these tires in Europe. It’s pretty different than the Huracán; the engine is different and the drivability is different. It’s good to have a back-to-back comparison and January is still fresh in my mind. It took a few laps to get used to it but then it was quite straightforward.”
Beyond the new Lamborghini, several evolution packages or new team/car combinations also took to the track.
Porsche’s updated 911 GT3 R (992) – essentially although not formally known as the 992.2 – features revised aerodynamics and suspension upgrades. Wright Motorsports, Manthey and RS1 have 911 GT3 R cars here this weekend.
“It’s a few small updates, a few tweaks,” said Thomas Preining, co-driver of the No. 911 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R. “Naturally when you race the car a lot, you’re very involved because you give a lot of feedback and hope somebody listens. They did. I believe every upgrade that’s been done now is positive. We’re steering in the right direction.”
Ford’s evolved Mustang GT3 also sports a new splitter among its updates and is also present with three cars in the pair of Ford Multimatic Motorsports entries and the new Myers Riley Motorsports car. Jenson Altzman completed a shakedown of the brand-new Riley Mustang in Charlotte earlier this week before the No. 16 arrived in Daytona; he’ll share the car with Felipe Fraga, Sheena Monk and Romain Grosjean.
“That’s hard to put into perspective; hopefully it’s a car that goes on to have a lot of history,” said Altzman, a Ford Performance Junior Team driver who ran the sprint rounds this year with Gradient Racing. “I didn’t really realize it until driving home from our shakedown, but to put the first laps on a race car for Bill Riley and Riley Motorsports is a special opportunity.”
Ferrari’s 296 GT3 EVO ran with the No. 21 Af Corse USA entry, co-driven by Simon Mann and Tommaso Mosca.
“First time for me driving the EVO and everything went smoothly with no hiccups,” said Mann, the Motul Petit Le Mans GTD winner and IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD champion with Lilou Wadoux and Alessandro Pier Guidi. “We tried a lot of things and went through the program, and the feeling was quite good. The conditions will be quite different.”
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s two-pronged test saw a combination of being “out with the old” and also “in with the new.” The RLL team helped prepare the BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP cars for BMW M Team WRT as some of its crew are assisting the running this week. Meanwhile, having just taken delivery of its own new No. 59 McLaren 720s GT3 EVO, the newly christened RLL Team McLaren made its GT return for the first time since 2022. McLaren factory driver Dean MacDonald, Juri Vips and Max Esterson share the car.
Winward Racing’s GTD PRO class No. 48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 also ran its first laps with the quartet of Scott Noble, Jason Hart, Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz.
Some of the 10 ORECA LMP2 07 entries in Le Mans Prototype 2 have revised 2026 lineups that premiered for the first time this test. Two of note come at United Autosports USA and TDS Racing, where pairings that drove together in 2025 shift teams into 2026.
United adds both Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea to its No. 2 ORECA at least for the Rolex 24. McElrea noted both drivers shifting from TDS Racing to United were unrelated and coincidental but appreciated the similarity and continuity in driving alongside Jensen to open the 2026 campaign. Phil Fayer was confirmed as the team’s first full-season driver, with Ben Hanley set to complete its Rolex 24 lineup in that car.
TDS, meanwhile, set the Friday pace with its No. 11 ORECA in the hands of its one returning driver, Charles Milesi. The Frenchman is the team’s Rolex 24 fourth driver, with the programmer pair of Tobi Lutke and David Heinemeier Hansson moving over from Era Motorsport and Mathias Beche completing the set. Lutke and Beche are due to run the full season with “DHH” as its Michelin Endurance Cup third driver. Heinemeier Hansson said he was settling in quickly to his new team.
Four LMP2 cars ran in bare carbon liveries this week. CrowdStrike by APR and Tower Motorsports kept their 2025 liveries, the two United cars ran in their standard blue and white, AO Racing carried over its spooky Halloween livery.
Pratt Miller Motorsports premiered a slightly revised gray and orange livery (above, trailing similar No. 8 Tower car). Pratt Miller’s No. 73 ORECA in the hands of Pietro Fittipaldi led both Practice 3 and 4.
