Daytona Saturday Notebook

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

***GTD Pro and GTD cars joined GTP and LMP2 machinery in the second day of the IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway for three sessions, which were topped by three different cars. Colin Braun led the first session in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, while Nico Pino put the privateer JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 on top in the afternoon-into-evening session and Marco Wittmann paced the night session in the No. 25 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8.

***Mercedes-AMG Evo machinery largely dominated the sessions in GTD Pro and GTD, except for the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Spencer Pumpelly, who led the first two sessions. Pietro Fittipaldi topped two sessions in the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson, with Alex Quinn leading the way in the night-time running in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry.

***Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell again turned laps in the JDC-Miller Porsche on Saturday morning following a “short run” on Friday according to the Australian. It marked his first experience working with the Minnesota-based team after fellow works driver Felipe Nasr also got into the John Church-led squad’s Porsche for a pre-Motul Petit Le Mans test earlier this year.

****Campbell said: “It went smoothly. In the end I gave some feedback yesterday and differences maybe to our car and also [different] approaches. Obviously there’s so many systems in these cars and different ways to go about it. Yesterday went really, really good. I jumped in late [this morning] before jumping back in the 6 [car]. You can see what they’ve changed from yesterday and just giving a little bit feedback.”

***Despite the JDC-Miller Porsche still running to this year’s aero configuration, Campbell said he didn’t notice a considerable difference between the two cars. “For sure there’s a little bit but I think at such a track like Daytona it’s so oddly specific on the calendar, there’s really only the one proper high speed corner with the Bus Stop,” he said. “To be honest, everywhere else, the infield there’s not a huge difference in terms of car. The feeling the JDC car was also very, very good.”

***Campbell said there’s still some “decisions to be made” regarding his position within the Porsche Penske Motorsport lineup next year and whether he’ll be back full-time to defend the GTP title. Sportscar365 understands that Campbell could be moved into an endurance-only role with the team ahead of a potential mid-year exit to Ford’s Hypercar program, which will debut in the 2027 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

***He said: “For sure there’s going to be a bit of a reshuffle in some respects in terms of drivers. I still don’t have a 100 percent answer on that yet. There’s still plenty of time before we get to Daytona. Obviously I’m already here this weekend where there’s a few [drivers] missing, so I think it’s already a positive sign that I’ll be a part of the team in some way.”

***With the Genesis-bound Mathieu Jaminet not returning to the WeatherTech Championship next year, it will mark the the sixth consecutive season that the same top-class title-winning lineup won’t return intact. If Campbell also doesn’t return for a full season, it would mark the first time in the 11-year history of the series that neither title-winning driver from the top class would defend their championship.

***Connor Zilisch, who had his first experience at the wheel of a GTP car on Saturday ahead of a possible run with Action Express Racing as a fourth driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, revealed that he receives a text message from IMSA President John Doonan every time he wins a race. The 19-year-old Mazda MX-5 Cup graduate, who narrowly missed out on the NASCAR Xfinity Series title this year after scoring a season-high ten wins, will step up to full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition in 2026 with Trackhouse.

***Zilisch said: “He says, ‘Congrats and remember to stay humble.’ That’s cool. John is one of the best people that walks through this garage each week. I’ve known him since before I was racing in this series, I met him up at VIR when I was just walking around trying to meet people, he was one of the guys I got to meet. He’s been a good friend of mine every since and his message always means a lot.”

***Jack Aitken, who is set for a dual series program in returning to WeatherTech Championship GTP with Action Express while also taking part in a season-long effort in the FIA World Endurance Championship in one of Hertz Team JOTA’s Cadillac V-Series.Rs, confirmed to Sportscar365 that he will not be back to DTM after three seasons in the German GT3 championship in an Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

***The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 has a new race engineer in Chris Andrews, who comes from the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 after four seasons with the GTD squad. Sportscar365 understands that there has been a considerable shakeup in crew within the two-car Lexus squad for next year.

***AJ Allmendinger admitted it’s been a big adjustment in coming to grips with the Acura ARX-06 for the first time, with his most recent prototype experience having come in the previous-generation ARX-05 DPi car. He said: “I told them all, ‘They have all these buttons on the steering wheel. All I’m worried about is the radio button on the Cup car to yell at my race team about what we need!’ It’s a lot.”

***Longtime WRT driver Dries Vanthoor said he’s “very happy” to see the Belgian squad expand into the WeatherTech Championship, in taking over operation of BMW’s factory GTP program, beginning this weekend.

***He said: “Obviously I’m very happy that WRT is in the U.S. I’ve been part of them for a long time; I’ve known Vincent [Vosse, team principal] for a long time. He’s like a second father for me. I’m very happy to have all the WRT people here. I’m also very motivated to work and to improve because it wasn’t a perfect season in WEC but in terms of teams-wise, we will try to make everything to perfection.”

***Vanthoor, meanwhile, expressed interest in again contesting a double program next year, especially with WRT now at the helm of both . “I’ll be very much up for it,” he said. “I think this is the goal and hopefully we can make it work and have a successful season. I think this year has been good but not good enough and to be able to do both seasons next year would also help, especially with our Evo car, to bring them up to speed on both sides of the world.”

***Scott McLaughlin believes the increased interest from NTT IndyCar Series drivers, either confirmed or looking to take part in the Rolex 24, has largely been down to the 180-day off-season for the open-wheel series. Ten active IndyCar drivers — more than one-third of the grid — are taking part in this weekend’s test.

***He told Sportscar365: “I think it’s just a fun race. To start your year. Our off season is so long. For me it was so awesome to be able to come out here and drive. Ideally, I’d like to start my year with the Rolex, whether that’s GT, LMP2, GTP, I’d love to do it.”

***Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac and potentially Porsche will all benefit by the WEC’s move to the Windshear wind tunnel for its Hypercar homologations in that the LMH/LMDh-based cars will now be identical from an aero standpoint. Previously, there was minor variations between WEC and WeatherTech Championship specifications when the world championship used the Sauber wind tunnel, which is no longer available due to Audi’s takeover of the Swiss organization for its Formula 1 venture.

***BMW M Hybrid V8 project lead Achim Klein said: “At the moment we have slight differences in the aero setup between the cars, IMSA and WEC, and this is now will be the same, which is helpful for us.” Cadillac Racing program manager Keely Bosn added: “It definitely helps with the continuity across all of our teams and it allows us to do those apples to apples comparisons across both series.”

***All three Cadillac WeatherTech Championship entries will be testing at Circuit of The Americas on Dec. 1-2, in an effort to help fellow Cadillac squad Hertz Team JOTA in its preparation for next year’s Lone Star Le Mans WEC race. Sportscar365 understands the test was made possible due to Cadillac having unused test days that would have expired by the end of the year.

***New Cadillac recruit Colton Herta, who will be serving as the test and reserve driver in the Formula 1 program alongside his rookie season in FIA Formula 2 competition next year, has expressed interest in contesting the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the brand but will be unable to do so next year due to a clash with the F2 race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the same weekend.

***Herta said: “[Le Mans] hasn’t been offered to me so I haven’t even looked at it. But I would love to do it. I’ve been close a few times with some P2 teams, never in the top class, but with IndyCar, it’s just never worked out. If the opportunity arises [in the future] it would be amazing and it would be especially amazing with Cadillac.”

***The remainder of the test will be for GTD Pro and GTD competitors only, with Sunday’s sessions set to run from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. (all times ET).

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John