DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Cool, crisp conditions greeted 60 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors as they took to the Daytona Int’l Speedway road course for first of three days of testing.
The Roar Before the Rolex 24 is the prelude to the 64th running of America’s most prestigious endurance sports car race, the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
It was the first opportunity of the 2026 season for drivers and teams to get to grips with new personnel, manufacturer affiliations and/or equipment, including evolution upgrades for entries from Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche in the premier Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class. Aston Martin, meanwhile, is set to run its Valkyrie at the Rolex 24 for the first time.
Porsche got out of the gates quickly in its quest to win the Rolex 24 for a third consecutive year as Felipe Nasr set the pace in the opening session, lapping the 3.56-mile circuit that incorporates most of the iconic Daytona oval in 1 minute, 36.327 seconds (133.047 mph) in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 he is sharing with Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich.
Porsche ran 1-2-3 in the 90-minute morning practice, with Laurens Vanthoor in the factory No. 6 Penske Porsche in third place trailing Nico Pino in the private No. 85 Porsche fielded by JDC-Miller MotorSports. Both factory cars are running Porsche’s latest aerodynamic upgrades, while the JDC-Miller car is in the 963’s 2025 configuration. All three were separated by just 0.108 seconds.
Porsche Penske Motorsport has rejigged its driver lineup for 2026, with Nasr the only carryover full-timer from Porsche’s 2025 GTP championship-winning effort. Vanthoor, Andlauer and Kevin Estre, who is the other full-time driver in the No. 6 entry with Vanthoor, all transferred from PPM’s FIA World Endurance Championship effort.
“I’m looking forward to my first full year in IMSA,” Andlauer said. “I think we have everything ready for a good season. The team knows how to be successful, as well as my teammates. Last year at Daytona was a lot of fun and we were very competitive, so hopefully it’s going to be the same this year.”
Sheldon van der Linde was fastest in the afternoon session in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8, prepared for the WeatherTech Championship beginning this year by WRT, BMW’s longtime WEC partner team. Van der Linde’s best lap was timed at 1:36.742 (132.476 mph). Porsche again showed strongly, with the No. 85 JDC-Miller car (now driven by Tijmen van der Helm) second at 1:36.880, Heinrich third in the No. 7 at 1:36.908 and Vanthoor fourth in the No. 6 at 1:36.982.
Cadillac was knocking on the door of the top three in both sessions, with Louis Deletraz running fourth fastest in the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R in the morning and Earl Bamber (No. 31 Cadillac Whelen) fifth in the afternoon.
The No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 failed to post a full flying lap in the morning, but an unconcerned Tom Blomqvist placed eighth in the afternoon.
“All of us have little ‘Evo’ packages on the cars, and some like the Cadillac are visually quite different,” said Blomqvist, whose Rolex 24 teammates are Colin Braun, IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and NASCAR star AJ Allmendinger. “Ours are subtle changes and we’ve all made hopefully small improvements. The biggest thing is we have different tires this year, but they’re still Michelin tires, so it doesn’t feel like you’re driving a different race car.
“We’re expecting the competition to be really tight, but no one really knows where everyone is going to stand.”
Charles Milesi (No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07) turned the fastest lap of the day in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class at 1:38.935 (129.539 mph). Afternoon times for all four classes were about 0.2 seconds slower, with LMP2 led by Ben Hanley in the No. 2 ORECA fielded by United Autosports USA.
Four different manufacturers topped the charts in IMSA’s Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) classes. Spencer Pumpelly in Magnus Racing’s No. 44 GTD class Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo clocked 1:47.304/119.436 mph in the morning for a robust 0.462-second advantage over Dean Macdonald in Team RLL’s inaugural run in GTD PRO with the No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO.
The No 66 GTD class Ford Mustang GT3 fielded by Gradient Racing and driven by Corey Lewis set the afternoon benchmark of 1:47.522 (119.194 mph), while Australian Supercars champion Chaz Mostert was quickest in GTD PRO in 75 Express’ No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 at 1:47.625 (119.080 mph), an entry that also features IndyCar star Will Power set to make his first WeatherTech Championship start.
