Rebel Rock Wins at Daytona in Aston Martin 1-2

Rebel Rock Racing brought an end to a winless run of nearly two years in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, leading an Aston Martin 1-2 to come out on top in the BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona.

Robin Liddell, sharing the No. 71 Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo with Frank DePew and Andrew Davis, crossed the line with margin of 2.691 seconds over the No. 14 Circle H Racing Aston Martin of David Hampton, Thomas Merrill and Martin Sarukhanyan.

The result marked Rebel Rock’s first Pilot Challenge victory since Sebring 2024, having gone winless across the entire 2025 season.

The pole-sitting No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 dominated the opening exchanges of an incident-packed four-hour contest at Daytona International Speedway.

However, the No. 71 Aston Martin began to pick up steam in the second hour, storming into podium contention before passing Robert Noaker at the Le Mans Chicane to take first place

Then, after the race’s fourth restart, Circle H first entered the lead as Merrill charged past Davis, setting up the battle that would ultimately determine the winner of the race.

With Liddell appearing to gain the upper hand in the final hour, the Archangel Motorsports-operated Circle H crew rolled the dice on strategy for Merrill’s final stop.

The call to give the No. 14 Aston Martin two tires for its final stop initially allowed Merrill to undercut Liddell and capture the race lead.

However, Liddell, having taken four fresh tires when he came in a lap later, rapidly chipped away at Merrill’s lead and made the decisive pass at Turn 1 with just under 40 minutes remaining.

Liddell would remain unchallenged for the remainder of the contest.

Behind them, a late-race charge from Daan Arrow saw the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 fight its way up to third overall, resulting in a podium finish for the Dutchman and Bryce Ward.

Luca Mars and Dillon Machavern finished fourth in the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 EVO, just 0.436 seconds clear of the No. 27 AutoTechnic Racing-entered example piloted by Roland Krainz, Austin Krainz and Stevan McAleer.

Noaker and Nate Cicero picked up sixth in the No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Mustang, ahead of the No. 7 VPX Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport in the hands of Danny Dyszelski and Matheus Leist.

Gregory Liefooghe and Sean Quinlan took eighth for Stephen Cameron Racing, with the overall top ten rounded out by the No. 2 CSM Porsche and No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW.

Dupont, Brown Go Back-to-Back at Daytona With Hard-Fought TCR Win

In the TCR class, Denis Dupont and Preston Brown took their second consecutive victory at Daytona, coming out on top in a tightly contested three-car battle for victory.

Dupont brought the No. 76 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR across the line with a lead of 0.408 seconds over the No. 89 HART Honda Civic FL5 TCR of Chad Gilsinger, Tyler Chambers and Cameron Lawrence.

The No. 33 Hyundai of Bryson Morris, Mason Filippi and Joshua Buchan ended up finishing third despite being a strong contender for the win throughout and leading at multiple points.

Early running in TCR was dominated by the CUPRA teams, including a charging drive from Franco Girolami who took the No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Leon VZ TCR into the lead from last on the grid.

However, the race soon unravelled for the Spanish manufacturer, most notably when a bizarre incident eliminated two cars under the race’s first caution.

This occurred when Varun Choksey’s No. 12 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 was hit by Celso Neto’s weaving No. 77 Stallion Motorsports with Gou CUPRA as the former was passing slower cars to catch up to the GS field.

This, in turn, caused Choksey to smash into the No. 55 Gou Racing CUPRA, eliminating all three cars from the race.

The sole remaining CUPRA then saw its competitive run curtailed by a number of penalties, most notably for a collision between Girolami and the No. 93 MMG Honda Civic FL5 TCR at Turn 1.

Instead, the No. 72 Pegram Racing Honda became the main car to challenge the BHA Hyundais at the front of the field through the efforts of Mario Farnbacher.

This included a firm battle between Farnbacher and Dupont with just under an hour to go, where the former wrestled the lead away as both cars worked their way through GS back markers on the infield.

However, Farnbacher and Riley Pegram saw their victory hopes dashed when the team was penalized for leaving a tire unattended on the pit apron during their final stop.

Farnbacher eventually failed to finish, suffering a high-speed puncture at Turn 1 in the final 30 minutes.

Out front, meanwhile, Dupont was leading and holding off the No. 33 sister Hyundai driven by Morris, which allowed the No. 89 HART Honda driven by Lawrence to catch up.

Lawrence managed to fight his way past Morris, but was unable to prevent Dupont and Brown from taking their second consecutive win at Daytona.

Fourth place went to the No. 98 BHA Hyundai of Andre Castro, Madison Aust and Mark Wilkins, with the No. 52 Baker Racing Audi RS 3 LMS TCR completing the top five in class.

RESULTS: BMW M Endurance Challenge