Dalziel: Era ‘In a Much Better Spot’ for Second Season

Era Motorsport driver Ryan Dalziel says the team is “in a much better spot” ahead of its second season in Creventic’s Michelin 24H European Series.

The Indianapolis-based team contested a full season of the 24H Series last year with the Ferrari 296 GT3. The multi-year program expands on the team’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship efforts, where it has raced since 2020.

“I think we went in pretty humble knowing that we definitely had a lot to learn, and to be honest we made a lot of mistakes early on in the season between the Asian rounds and the first couple of European rounds because we were so used to running endurance races like IMSA,” Dalziel told Sportscar365.

Dalziel, who won the 2010 Rolex 24 at Daytona overall, moved to Era’s 24H Series squad last year to continue in his role as a driver coach for gentleman driver Dwight Merriman.

The duo were joined by team founder Kyle Tilley, as well as drivers such as Oliver Bryant and British Touring Car champion Jake Hill for selected events.

“I think we did a really good job overall,” said Dalziel. “It was a big challenge. We really didn’t have any experience with that car. I was the only one who really had any driving experience with the 296.

“We had a couple of mechanical issues that weren’t our fault, just not quite understanding the life of parts, but I think reliability wise we were really strong at the end.

“We got the cars pretty late last year, so I think taking on Abu Dhabi and Dubai didn’t give us a lot of turnaround time last year between those races and also the full season in Europe.”

After seveal poor results in the Middle East Trophy, the team had a standout third place at the 12H of Mugello. A handful of top-ten finishes came later in the European season, but Era ultimately ended the campaign eighth in the championship standings.

Era decided to skip the Middle East Trophy for 2026, instead focussing on the European rounds of the season later in the year.

Dalziel added: “We made some changes throughout the last couple of races, mainly in engineering. We were using our IMSA engineer. We’ve kind of shifted that to let them focus on the IMSA program.

“We brought an engineer that I worked with before who had a lot of 296 experience from DragonSpeed.”

To prepare for the first round in Mugello later this month, both of the Ferrari chassis brought back to its U.S. base to be stripped and rebuilt. Dalziel then completed a two-day test in both cars at Sebring International Raceway in early February.

Dalziel: Merriman Plays a “Big Part” of Team’s Success

The Scottish driver said that, alongside his managerial and driving duties at the team, his main responsibility is to guide FIA Bronze-rated driver Merriman.

“I think for Dwight going from the LMP2 car to the GT3 car was that a pretty big difference for him, but one that I really think was the right decision for us to make,” he said.

“He didn’t feel that comfortable in the LMP2 car so we wanted to get him in something with a bit more space and a little bit easier on the body.

“You’re only as good as your average and we need to make sure that all of us can perform at the highest level that we can, and Dwight’s a big part of that.”

Dalziel explained that the 24H Series “caters well towards an amateur driver” and that “for racing in Europe, this was the best place to go with a Pro-Am lineup.”

The opening 24H Series round will clash with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, though this isn’t expected to impact Era’s efforts in either event.

“We have a pretty much fully European-based program, and there’s nothing that will be stressed as far as our team goes between those events,” he explained.

“The only crossovers are owners Kyle and Sarah [Tilley]”, added Dalziel. The co-owners are expected to split their time between the two races.

“Our general manager John Broadwell will probably have to decide which event he goes to, and I would assume he’ll probably do IMSA because we do have a really good team manager on the Ferrari side,” he added.