Daytona Thursday Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams unloaded Thursday at Daytona International Speedway for this weekend’s sanctioned test, which will see the public debuts of a number of new and/or updated cars for the 2026 season. GTP/LMP2 teams were the first to show off their machinery, with updated aero packages from the majority of the GTP runners breaking cover in the morning, followed by GTD Pro/GTD teams in the afternoon.

***A finalized entry list for this weekend’s test was released by IMSA on Thursday afternoon, confirming a number of drivers that were listed as TBD due to driver licensing requirements that needed to be met.

***Nico Pino will test the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963, with what Sportscar365 understands is an eye towards a potential full season drive. Franck Perera, meanwhile, has been added to the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports-run Lamborghini Temerario GT3, which is set for its first test on U.S. soil.

***Will Power, as previously confirmed by Sportscar365, will test the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with Mikael Grenier and Kenny Habul, while Four-time NTT IndyCar Series Champion Alex Palou will turn laps in the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, while fellow IndyCar driver Louis Foster will test the No. 8 Tower Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson in LMP2.

***RLL Team McLaren’s GTD Pro entry will feature McLaren factory driver Dean MacDonald, Estonian open-wheel driver Juri Vips and open-wheel turned sports car rising star Max Esterson, who takes the seat that is understood to have been initially tabbed for Graham Rahal.

***Nicki Thiim has been added to the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, while Callum Ilott is now listed as the fourth driver in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo. Romain Grosjean will also get seat time in the Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3.

***All three of Porsche’s 911 GT3 Rs running here this weekend are in Evo specification according to Porsche Motorsport North America President and CEO Volker Holzmeyer. The two factory Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3s are debuting as EVOs, while the Myers Riley Motorsports entry is running in previous specification, per a Ford Racing spokesperson.

***Porsche’s “quite extensive” aero update for its 963 is only on the two factory Porsche Penske Motorsport entries this weekend, with the JDC-Miller Porsche running to last year’s specification.

***While Cadillac has yet to communicate the extent of its updates, Sportscar365 understands the manufacturer has taken at least two Evo jokers for its V-Series.R, with heavily updated aero, featuring a new splitter and rear wing, along with a new brake supplier in Brembo.

***Cadillac Racing program manager Keely Bosn told Sportscar365: “I think you’ll see a few differences, just in the overall body shape and structure of the vehicle. We’re excited to roll out all of the developments we’ve been working on this year, so you will see some changes.”

***Members of Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA are on-site this weekend to get their hands on the updated Cadillac, integrated with Action Express Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing.

***The Acura ARX-06 features minimal changes compared to the fresh-faced BMW M Hybrid V8 or even visible updates to the Porsche and Cadillac, with Honda Racing Corporation USA President David Salters confirming that there’s been changes to the ‘cheese wedge’ at the rear as well as a re-profiling of the front dive planes, along with a revised wicker bill on the rear wing. He said the changes have impacted less than 10 percent of the aero package.

***Salters told Sportscar365: “It’s just a tidy-up, really, because the car had to go back to the wind tunnel. We tidied various bits and bobs up. We have a very tight aero box, so you have to fit in that window. It’s pretty constrained. But we tidied up what we could tidy up. There’s some durability stuff but there’s no huge change.”

***The updated BMW, detailed in a technical deep-dive, features roughly 50 percent new bodywork according to the car’s project leader Achim Klein, who confirmed parts such as the front splitter, kidney grille and headlights are all-new, and like the Cadillac and Porsche, have already been through the Windshear wind tunnel as part of the homologation process. “We are in the window of what we need to be,” said Klein.

***BMW’s Klein wouldn’t confirm the number of jokers the update has required, BMW previously used one at the start of this year for brakes. “It’s a joker relevant topic that we’re touching,” he said when pressed by Sportscar365 on the number of jokers the updated M Hybrid V8 will have gone through.

***Team WRT, which is operating the pair of BMW GTP cars for the first time in the WeatherTech Championship this weekend, is receiving operational support from former BMW partner Team RLL according to WRT’s Hypercar and GTP program director Bernhard Demmer.

***Demmer said: “It’s an interesting phase. It’s a big thing to build it up. We’re cooperating in terms of hardware, equipment and construction. We will mainly operate the test; it will be WRT manpower running this test. Ours is still in the full ramp-up. We’ll be there with our full equipment for the Daytona race but we agreed that this is a benefit for everyone to phase out RLL because they are in full swing. The time since the last race was just four weeks. For us, logistically, it’s a big help.”

***Cadillac’s Bosn said the test for NASCAR rising star Connor Zilisch, who won the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in LMP2, could “potentially” turn into a race seat in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac for the Rolex 24. The last time the Whelen-sponsored entry ran a top-level NASCAR driver was 2020 with Chase Elliott as a fourth in the team’s Cadillac DPi-V.R, although the sister entry at the time more recently had Jimmie Johnson at the wheel.

***Bosn told Sportscar365: “We’re always looking at driver talent and how we can best leverage the drivers that we have. We like to keep our GM family pretty close. The more that we can do that within our Cadillac teams, both IMSA and WEC, and having that crossover and learnings, and also bringing in drivers to that point outside of this group, [whether] it’s NASCAR or IndyCar, it’s nice to have that driver flow available so we can pull on it when needed.”

***Jack Aitken, meanwhile, is looking forward to working with Zilisch this weekend. “I met Connor when he was doing LMP2 with Era,” he told Sportscar365. “He’s always been a nice kid and I felt for him in the [NASCAR] Xfinity finale. It’s really cool to have him here. I think he’ll do a great job. He’s done a great job in everything else he’s jumped into. I don’t see why this would be different.”

***While the Action Express Cadillac could have a four-driver lineup, both of Wayne Taylor Racing’s Cadillacs will remain at three drivers only for the Rolex 24 according to Ricky Taylor, who will be joined in the No. 10 entry by regular co-driver Filipe Albuquerque and JOTA driver Will Stevens. Cadillac Formula 1 reserve driver Colton Herta rejoins Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz in the No. 40 machine, meanwhile.

***WTR has traditionally run with four-drivers at the Rolex 24, with the only recent exception having been last year when the No. 40 had three drivers due to Alex Lynn falling ill prior to the weekend and the team electing not to replace him.

***Penske Racing President Jonathan Diuguid explained why the team has nominated all five of its drivers in both of its factory Porsche 963s this weekend: “The way IMSA structured the rules, and it’s mostly because of driver IDs, they don’t want you swapping drivers between cars between days. We’re basically taking five guys there, so we said, ‘Screw it, register them in both cars.’ That way if one car stops, the other guys can drive in the other one.”

***Matt Campbell, meanwhile, is also listed in JDC-Miller’s Porsche to help give the Minnesota-based team a setup baseline during the test. “We’ve also done it at some private testing,” said Diuguid. “It’s happened before (with Felipe Nasr in a Pre-Petit Le Mans test) and John [Church] has just basically asked for a baseline from one of the factory guys. There’s no other data sharing or setup sharing between the factory cars and the privateers but John and that group have gotten some good benefit out of that in the past in private tests, so we decided to do it for Daytona as well.”

***Team WRT, meanwhile, has six drivers spread across its two cars, with Robin Frijns, Rene Rast, Kevin Magnussen and Dries Vanthoor listed in both, and Philipp Eng in the No. 24 only and Marco Wittmann nominated in the No. 25 BMW.

***Only Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis are set to test the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie, which will be making its Rolex 24 at Daytona debut in January. No jokers have been taken on the LMH-based prototype for 2026 according to team principal Ian James.

***Track action kicks off with GTP/LMP2-only sessions on Friday, which will run from 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET and 1:30-5 p.m. The prototypes will be joined by GTD Pro and GTD machinery on Saturday, which will include a night test session.

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