Largest Field in Five Years Set for Daytona Season Opener

Friday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season-opening BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona International Speedway is set to feature the largest grid in series history since 2020, with 51 cars split between the GS and TCR categories.

The same seven manufacturers in GS are present this year. BMW leads the way with nine cars, while Ford follows closely with eight. Porsche runs six cars, Aston Martin five, Toyota four, Mercedes-AMG two and McLaren one.

Defending champions RS1 step up to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, leaving the GS title race wide open.

Jan Heylen is back for Daytona as part of BGB Motorsports’ entry with Spencer Pumpelly and Thomas Collingwood in their No. 83 Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport.

Everyone down from second to 12th in the championship is back for 2026; those that finished second through fifth have as good a chance as any to emerge on top.

From Jeff Westphal and Sean McAlister (No. 39 CarBahn by Peregrine racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO) to Austin Krainz and Stevan McAleer (No. 27 AutoTechnic BMW) to the new young pairing of Nate Cicero and Robert Noaker (No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4) and the experienced duo of Michael Cooper and Moisey Uretsky (No. 44 Ibiza Farm Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4), any or all could once again contend for the title. Cooper and Uretsky won Daytona last year and the last two races of 2025.

Turner Motorsport has a dual threat with four past GS champions (Dillon Machavern and Luca Mars in No. 95, Vin Barletta and Robby Foley in No. 96) aboard its pair of BMWs

Further past champions Matt Plumb (No. 46 Team TGM) and Billy Johnson (No. 59 KohR Motorsports) resume their battle to break their tie on 24 victories as the series’ winningest driver, now both driving Mustangs  following Team TGM’s switch.

They’ll share their cars with Paul Holton (No. 46) and Robert Michaelian (No. 59) respectively; KohR’s second car of Evan Slater and Ray Mason (No. 60 Ford) will honor the life of the late NASCAR star Greg Biffle and his family with a Grainger-blessed tribute livery in Daytona.

TGM’s second car, the No. 64 Ford features defending Bronze Cup GS champions Ted Giovanis, Hugh Plumb and regular Daytona third driver Kris Wilson.

Both Rebel Rock Racing’s No. 71 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo (Frank DePew and past GS champion Robin Liddell) and Winward Racing’s No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 (Daan Arrow and Bryce Ward) are good for wins but will look to rebound after winless 2025 seasons.

Steven Cameron Racing/Racing to End Alzheimer’s (Sean Quinlan and Greg Liefooghe in their No. 19 Mustang) was a quiet but solid top-ten finishing entrant in 2026 and seeks to join the list of winners, as does past TCR champions Mikey Taylor and Chris Miller driving UniTronic JDC-Miller MotorSports’ No. 17 Porsche in its second year in class.

Legends and young stars also dot the class. The new-look Random Vandals Racing entries feature IMSA’s all-time winningest driver, Bill Auberlen, and three younger stars in IMSA 3D Scholarship recipient Nicky Hays, IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge GTDX Bronze Cup champion Samantha Tan and past Pilot Challenge race winner Robert Megennis split between its No. 38 (ST by Random Vandals, Tan and Auberlen) and No. 92 (Random Vandals, Hays and Megennis) cars.

Past series champion Owen Trinkler is another making a welcome return, as part of VRC’s new No. 91 Porsche with Dan Ammann and Darren Law for Daytona.

Toyota has a targeted young driver approach in its four GR Supra GT4 EVO2s: keep an eye out for any and all of 2025 VP Challenge GSX champion Kiko Porto and Varun Choksey (No. 12 RAFA Racing), Jaxon Bell and Ford Koch (No. 23 Koch Copeland Motorsports), Caio Chaves and Thiago Camilo (No. 54 PanAm Motorsport) and Harrison Goodman and Lucas Weisenberg (No. 67 BSI Racing).

There are seven women in GS, including the aforementioned Tan.

There’s an all-female lineup of Hannahs Grisham and Greenemeier aboard Heart of Racing Team’s No. 26 Aston Martin. Madeline Stewart graduates from Porsche Carrera Cup North America in CSM’s No. 2 Porsche.

Megan Tomlinson steps up from TCR to GS in the No. 22 Shopify Racing Powered by TWOth Porsche with her father Ron.

Then there’s two wife and husband teams; Aurora Straus shares with Kenny Murillo shortly after they tied the knot in the No. 24 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Christine and Ben Sloss are back for their second season in the No. 10 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin, one of several quality Bronze Cup entries.

CarBahn (No. 37) and Auto Technic (No. 26) have extra BMW entries for Daytona, 89x Motorsports (No. 8 Aston Martin) and LAP Motorsports (No. 30 Mustang) are back after partial 2025 seasons, Circle H Racing (No. 14 Aston Martin) switches team names and cars, while additional series newcomers include Medusa Motorsports (No. 4 Mustang), VPX Motorsport (No. 7 Porsche) and Thunder Bunny (No. 66 BMW).

TCR Field Spread More Evenly Across Four Manufacturers

Hyundai has had strength in numbers the last several TCR seasons, but a wider spread is evident heading into 2026. Hyundai has still won the last six TCR manufacturer championships (2020-25) and six of the last seven driver titles (2019-23, 2025) but will have to work hard to defend their crowns this year.

As ever, the Bryan Herta Autosport quartet of Hyundai Elantra N TCRs expect to contend. And also as usual, there’s slight refreshes of the lineup for two of its four cars.

Mason Filippi now joins Bryson Morris in the team’s No. 33 Hyundai, with 2019 TCR champion Mark Wilkins and Madison Aust uniting in the No. 98 Hyundai. Wilkins and Filippi essentially trade between the No. 33 and 98 from this year, while Aust moves from the team’s developmental No. 9 car into Herta’s flagship No. 98 car for her second season.

Last year’s runner-up Denis Dupont and Preston Brown remain unchanged in the No. 76 Hyundai, while two-time and last year’s TCR champion Harry Gottsacker shifts to the No. 18 Elantra with Lance Bergstein.

Veteran Jon Miller shifts to the third driver slot at Daytona.

Rockwell Autosport Development, a Herta-affiliated entry, prepares for its first full year with Hyundai with its new-look lineup of Doug Oakley and Daniel Hanley.

CUPRA enters on a high from a two-win finish to the season for its second year, expanding from two to four cars.

The Victor Gonzalez Racing Team expands back to two cars, with Franco Girolami joining Tyler Gonzalez for a full season in its No. 99 CUPRA Leon VZ TCR and newcomers William Tally and Steven Clemons sharing the sister No. 21 car.

The aligned forces of Gou Racing and series newcomers Stallion Motorsports will also seek to impress.

The father-son Eduardo and Eddie Gou share their No. 55 entry while the all-Brazilian pairing of 2025-26 IMSA 3D Scholarship recipient Celso Neto and Raphael Reis seek to score their first wins in IMSA in Stallion’s No. 77 CUPRA.

Honda, too, has a quartet of contenders. MMG’s LP Montour and Karl Wittmer nearly won the 2025 TCR title and will look to leap two spots in 2026 in their No. 93 Honda Civic FL5 TCR, joined at Daytona by Dai Yoshihara.

KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering seeks a bounce back campaign in its second year with Honda while Pegram Racing’s father-daughter pairing of Larry and Riley Pegram switches from Hyundai this year.

Veteran part-timers HART will once again return for another season as their schedule allows.

That leaves Audi with the fewest cars, three, but still strength in its effort.

Baker Racing ascends as the brand’s most voluminous entry with a pair of RS 3 LMS TCRs; James Vance, the father-and-son pair of Dean and Sam Baker and Indy car veteran Bruno Junqueira impressed more often than not in 2025 but didn’t have full results to justify the promise.

The returning RVA Graphics by Speed Syndicate effort won at VIR last year and seeks additional success in 2026.

Pilot Challenge has two one-hour practice sessions, Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET and Thursday at 8:45 a.m. ET.

Qualifying takes place Thursday 1:15 p.m. ET. A final 30-minute practice session takes place Friday morning at 9:10 a.m. ET before the green flag of the four-hour race at 1:45 p.m. ET. Live coverage streams on Peacock (U.S.) and IMSA’s Official YouTube channel (outside the U.S.).