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Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA BMW outfit Paul Miller Racing claimed GTD Pro class victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona after coming out on top of a tense strategic battle against 75 Express. The No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO shared by Connor De Phillippi, Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Neil Verhagen triumphed by a margin of just 2.223 seconds over the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Kenny Habul, Will Power, Chaz Mostert and Maro Engel. Heading into the final 90 minutes of a race punctuated by a caution period in the night-time hours lasting more than six hours due to fog, Engel appeared to be in a strong position to capture victory having passed several cars on-track. However, at the last round of pit stops with one hour and 20 minutes to go, Paul Miller turned around Harper 13 seconds faster than 75 Express managed with Engel, giving Harper a small cushion he was able to manage to the finish. As well having to conserve fuel, Harper faced the additional challenge of not having a working radio fo...

Photo: Jurgen Tap/Porsche Kevin Estre led Porsche Penske Motorsport teammate Julien Andlauer with three hours to go in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Estre in the No. 6 Porsche 963 held an eight-tenth advantage of Andlauer’s No. 7 entry in second. The No. 25 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Marco Wittmann ran third, some ten seconds behind. Andlauer’s co-driver Nasr put the No. 7 Porsche back into the lead, after Wittmann, who was off-sequence, pitted with three hours and 45 minutes to go. It re-instated a Porsche Penske 1-2 at the front of the field. The No. 24 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde, with Earl Bamber slipping back to fifth in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, which bouced back from a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty for co-driver Connor Zilisch running the red light at pit exit during the six-plus hour long full-course caution period. LMP2 was paced by the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca 07 Gibson of Malthe Jakobsen, who recovered from an earlier drive-th...

Photo: Juergen Tap/Porsche Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 car led the Rolex 24 at Daytona under caution at the halfway point, as deteriorating visibility due to fog put the race into a holding pattern. Felipe Nasr circulated at the head of the field behind the safety car aboard the No. 7 Porsche 963 after taking over from Laurin Heinrich early in Hour 12, followed by Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. The second quarter of the race saw two prolonged green flag periods in which the two Penske Porsches were the class of the GTP field and largely ran in close formation and both enjoyed spells at the head of the order. Before handing over to Nasr under caution, the seventh of the race, Heinrich had raced to a 20-second lead over the sister No. 6 Porsche driven by Matt Campbell. A seemingly-struggling Campbell was passed by Bamber before handing over to Kevin Estre at the most recent round of stops. BMW’s No. 24 car ran fourth in the hands of Sh...

Photo: Juergen Tap/Porsche Laurin Heinrich maintained Porsche Penske Motorsport’s lead in the Rolex 24 at Daytona at nightfall, having completed six hours of racing. The No. 7 Porsche 963 held a lead of 1.957 seconds over the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 of Nick Yelloly, with both cars haven overtaken the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche. Tijmen van der Helm held the race lead about the privateer 963 having elected not to pit under the most recent caution, which was triggered when the No. 81 DragonSpeed Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R hit the Turn 3 wall after contact from the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson. Van der Helm then proceeded to hold Heinrich at bay for multiple laps before eventually losing the lead, running third before pitting. BMW moved up to fourth and fifth with its pair of M Hybrid V8s driven by Rene Rast and Raffaele Marciello, followed by the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R in the hands of Will Stevens. Connor Zilisch sat in seventh ...

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA Porsche Penske Motorsport maintained its advantage after three hours of the Rolex 24 at Daytona with its No. 7 car, but drama struck the sister No. 6 entry lost ground following contact that necessitated repairs. Shortly after the one-hour mark, the two Porsche 963s swapped positions at the head of the field as the No. 6 of Kevin Estre passed Felipe Nasr’s No. 7 machine. That set the tone for the second hour of the race, with Laurens Vanthoor and Julien Andlauer taking over the two cars respectively upon the second round of pit stops, but Vanthoor was soon back to pit road for a third time with right-side damage, which was sustained through contact with an LMP2 car. The Belgian driver was forced to stop again after that, but the time loss was minimized when the full-course caution was thrown for a third time due to the Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 coming to a stop on-track after contact. Daniel Serra was at the wheel when contact was made with ...

Photo: Sam Cobb/BMW Porsche Penske Motorsport dominated the opening hour of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, which featured a multi-car LMP2 incident on the opening lap. Felipe Nasr’s No. 7 Porsche 963 led the sister car of Kevin Estre, with Renger van der Zande following in third aboard the polesitting No. 93 Acura ARX-06. Van der Zande was overtaken by Nasr on the opening lap of the race, which then quickly fell under caution when multiple LMP2 cars collided at the first corner. The No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson of Naveen Rao was found to have caused the incident, which also involved the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca of Francois Perrodo, TDS Racing driver Tobias Lutke, CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz and the No. 2 United Autosports entry driven by Phil Fayer. The latter took the brunt of the damage, going behind the wall and losing 20 laps to the class lead before rejoining. In the opening lap melee, Dries Vanthoor also spun the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 but was able to contin...

Image: McLaren McLaren’s “first priority” has been focused on establishing its factory Hypercar program in the FIA World Endurance Championship before finalizing plans for a targeted expansion into the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship no earlier than 2028 according to McLaren Endurance Racing executive director James Barclay. The British manufacturer, which will enter top-class WEC competition in 2027 under the McLaren United AS banner, has previously expressed interest in also running its yet-to-be-named Dallara-chassied LMDh car in the WeatherTech Championship, although it will not come any earlier than 2028, as reaffirmed by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. “The first priority is on establishing the program,” said Barclay during a roundtable media interview at Daytona International Speedway. “We’ve got a lot of work to do this year. A huge amount has happened already to get us to the point to go testing this year and preparing for the World Endurance Championship, first a...