Frederick Fully Focused on Sports Cars Ahead of GTP Debut

Single-seater convert Kaylen Frederick says his plan is now to “stay in the sports car world” as he prepares to make his endurance racing debut in this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona in his new role as third driver for JDC-Miller Motorsports.

Frederick, 23, will share JDC-Miller’s 2025-spec Porsche 963 with the team’s full-time drivers Nico Pino and Tijmen van der Helm as he embarks on the start of a five-round campaign in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.

It comes after the Maryland native called time on his time in open-wheel cars, having won the 2020 BRDC British Formula 3 title before racing in FIA Formula 3 and more recently Super Formula Lights in Japan, where he placed fifth in last year’s standings.

Having come to the realization that further progress up the single-seater ladder, or within the Japanese racing scene, was not realistic, Frederick explained that a mutual connection with JDC-Miller advisor Richard Westbrook opened the door to joining the team.

“Part-way through last year, I got together with Edge Management just to move more in an endurance direction,” Frederick told Sportscar365.

“We were planning to be in Europe, but they found this deal via Richard Westbrook and we got talking with them, they felt I would be a good fit and we came up with this deal to do the five endurance races this year.

“We’ll see what else we can add, but right now that’s the only thing confirmed so far. Super-thankful to everyone who put that deal together.”

Frederick only had his first experience of the No. 85 Porsche in last Friday’s opening test session of the Roar Before the 24, but said he was pleased with the progress he made at the wheel of the car as completed 80 laps across all six sessions.

“The main goal was just to get used to the car and the basic procedures, but I think it went pretty well,” said Frederick.

“There’s a lot to get used to, the feeling of the car, adapting to everything, the traffic. Coming from the UK, where you do a lot of open test days with different cars [sharing a track], you experience a lot of traffic. It’s a part of it.

“There’s a different type of driving involved too. The hardest thing is getting used to the feeling of the car and after that everything else falls into place.

“But I’m pretty happy with how it went, I got up to speed relatively quickly.”

Frederick set a best lap of 1:37.113 in the opening session of the Roar, going within eight-tenths of a second of pacesetter Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Penske Porsche.

Pino set the fastest time aboard the No. 85 Porsche, just 0.004 seconds slower than Nasr.

“Anything can happen in a 24-hour race,” said Frederick when asked about JDC-Miller’s pace. “We seem pretty fast. Obviously it’s still just the Roar, and you can’t compare directly with tires and fuel loads, but it didn’t seem too bad.”

Looking beyond the Rolex 24, which will mark his first race on U.S. soil since the end of his USF2000 campaign in 2018, Frederick said he is open to adding a European-based program to his JDC-Miller deal should the right chance present itself.

“When you get GTP experience it helps you out a lot in sports cars, so this [JDC-Miller program] was a priority,” said Frederick. “Then we’ll see what happens.

“Initially we planned something in GT World Challenge Europe or LMP2 in ELMS, but now that I’m here, who knows, I’ll look around and evaluate.

“My plan is to stay in the sports car world now. We’ll see what it brings.”