DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The third and final day of the IMSA-sanctioned November test for GT class competitors at Daytona International Speedway inadvertently moonlighted as a session for several IndyCar competitors.
In the opening hours Sunday morning, current or recent IndyCar drivers Will Power, Romain Grosjean, Kyle Kirkwood, Callum Ilott, Juri Vips and Benjamin Pedersen all drove GT cars in either of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s two GT classes, Grand Touring Daytona Pro and Grand Touring Daytona.
Though only one of those six has been officially announced for January’s 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona (Grosjean), there is a strong likelihood most if not all of them will be back in two months’ time.
Mercedes-AMG led both Sunday sessions with both of its GTD PRO cars. The No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 up front in Session 6 and the No. 75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 atop the charts in Session 7. Winward’s No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 led GTD in Session 6 with RS1’s No. 28 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) atop GTD in Session 7.
Two-time IndyCar series champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power is planning to make his Rolex 24 debut at long last aboard the No. 75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 in GTD PRO.
Power was meant to debut in 2023 although withdrew to tend to wife Liz, who was battling through a health scare. Following his major IndyCar team shift from Team Penske to the Andretti Global operation for 2026, Power also appears to have flexibility to add more non-IndyCar races to his calendar.
Having a built-in 20-plus-year relationship with fellow Australian Kenny Habul helps, as Habul continues his pursuit of an elusive first Rolex 24 victory; he finished second in GTD in 2021. Power took his first testing laps at Daytona’s 3.56-mile road course this weekend.
“I like the GT car,” Power said. “It’s a new driving style. It’s not the most crazy track, as far as technicality, but it’s an epic race, it’s cool. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time… so that’s why I’m doing it. Yeah, I’m gonna do it. That’s the plan.
“Kenny and I have known each other for 25-plus years, we raced against each other back in ’99 in Formula Ford. I think there’s a picture of us on the podium at the Gold Coast Indy race. We’ve been meaning to do this for a long time.”
Told he was one of a handful of IndyCar drivers on track at the same time this morning, Power laughed, “Copy that. That’s a hoot.”
The same year Power did his first full season with Team Penske in 2010, Grosjean was making waves in sports cars in a Matech Competition-run Ford GT in GT1 competition. He won two FIA GT1 World Championship races while a potential class win in the last year of LMGT1 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans evaporated near halfway with an engine issue.
Perhaps fittingly Grosjean will be back in a Ford, in a 24-hour race, 16 years later driving the No. 16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 in GTD. Confirmed alongside Felipe Fraga, Jenson Altzman and Sheena Monk for one of the more intriguing 2026 lineups, Grosjean was all too happy to have this full-circle moment to Ford’s “blue oval.”
“It was an amazing experiencing winning those two races and leading Le Mans before an engine issue,” Grosjean said. “I have a bit of a history with Ford, so it’s good to be back. I headed back to GP2 to get back to Formula 1 but we could have been (GT1) world champions.”
Grosjean ended the 2025 WeatherTech Championship season on a high with the best result in the Riley-run Lamborghini SC63 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP). A fourth was unlucky as the car was poised for a potential win or podium had a late-race full-course caution flew. The Riley connection is what led to this Ford opportunity.
“I had the Riley connection through the Lamborghini GTP program and got on really well with the team,” Grosjean explained. “They said there’s an option for Daytona and I said, ‘Well, no matter what I’ll be in Daytona, so it may as well be with you,’ and that’s how it happened.”
Grosjean started the Sunday morning running but was happier with the Saturday running.
“It’s definitely a bit different than the prototype,” he said. “The Ford is a really good car. Very happy with the teamwork. We spent a lot of the day learning and doing setup changes, learning from my teammates themselves.”
And his goal for January? “I turn 40 in April, so I need a Rolex!” he smiled.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s November Daytona test will go down as one of the more intriguing double-duty ones in recent memory. The RLL team prepped its outgoing BMW M Hybrid V8 chassis, now set to be run by BMW M Team WRT in 2026, and also welcomed a brand-new McLaren 720S GT3 EVO chassis from McLaren’s U.K. factory.
Not to mention, the team had to figure out its new GT team name (RLL Team McLaren), car number (59) and driver lineup for this test. This was all within a two-week period.
When Scotsman Dean Macdonald, a McLaren factory driver, took the first laps with the No. 59 McLaren on Saturday, he wasn’t just turning the car’s first laps. He was also turning his first ever laps on a North American race circuit. No pressure, right?
“It was my first time ever driving in North America!” Macdonald laughed. “The banking was a bit crazy, but cool. This was a saga. I tried, but my sim didn’t work! I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos.
“It’s a learning experience for everyone getting the car quite late and for us as drivers, none of us has been to Daytona before. But it was so nice to drive for the first time; we were focusing on checking boxes, so that was good.”
Macdonald also hailed how “calm” the team was, noting a laid-back experience compared to some of the European and British teams he’s raced for.
Past Team USA Scholarship winner Max Esterson, by contrast, has an extensive iRacing background and noted how his voluminous number of Daytona laps on iRacing helped his first real-world laps on the track.
“I’ve probably done a billion laps of Daytona the last 10 years on iRacing,” said Esterson, who made his WeatherTech Championship debut in an iRacing Arcade-adorned No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 GTP car at Motul Petit Le Mans.
“I’ve run the 24-hour race a bunch on iRacing when I raced competitively; I was in GT3. It’s where I started on the sim. They have this car on the sim, so I did some laps last week.”
Completing the trio is Juri Vips, the one driver this test with RLL experience. Vips, who has been a test and reserve driver with its IndyCar team including three race starts from 2023-’24, is newer to sports car racing as a whole.
“Traffic management was better than I thought, and the prototypes were much more respectful than I expected,” said the Estonian. “They waited to overtake on the straights. The driving side, there’s 10 million things for me to get used to! Coming from single-seaters I’m learning ABS, traction control and how the car rolls through corners compared to being fully planted.
“The RLL team has been fantastic to me for all the times I’ve been affiliated with them. They’ve been great to work with and we’re looking into more.”
