The Michelin Pilot Challenge championship opened its 2025 season on Friday at Daytona International Speedway with a four-hour race. It was one of only two four-hour races on the schedule, the other at Mid-Ohio in June. The rest of the races are two hours long.
Six BMW M4 GT4s entered the 27-car GS class field, two from Turner Motorsport and Team ACP—Tangerine and single-car entries from Auto Technic Racing and CarBahn with Peregrine Racing. Team ACP—Tangerine is a local Florida team that will run select races in the Michelin Pilot Challenge and WRL. The rest are full-season entries in the Michelin Pilot Challenge.
The #39 CarBahn BMW gets passed on the banking by the McLaren that went on to win the race.
Early in the practice sessions, it became clear that the BMWs didn’t have the pace to be competitive at Daytona on speed alone. A BMW M4 GT4 only cracked the top ten once in the three practice sessions, when Jeff Westphal set the eighth fastest time in the final practice in the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing car. The #39 was also the fastest BMW in qualifying with Sean McAlister at the wheel, but his lap time of 1:54.583 was only good enough for twelfth on the grid. The pole time of the #28 Porsche was nearly 2.5 seconds quicker, and the top five spots in qualifying were all either Porsche or Ford Mustang entries.
Auto Technic Racing finished 15th.
BMWs often perform better in the race than they do in qualifying, but multiple full-course cautions and strategy weren’t enough to overcome the speed deficit. The #39 BMW was involved in the first full course caution after being hit by a Porsche, which was penalized for the accident. It seemed early in the race that it was going to be a Porsche vs. Mustang battle for the win, but the #44 McLaren Artura GT4 spoiled their party by taking the win, followed by the #28 Porsche in second and the #59 Mustang in third. Seven of the top ten finishers were either Porsches or Mustangs.
Turner Motorsport’s #96 M4 GT4 EVO finished 13th.
As for the BMWs, the #95 Turner Motorsport car of Francis Selldorff and Dillon Machavern was the highest finisher in eleventh, followed by the #39 CarBahn entry of Westphal and McAlister in twelfth and the #96 Turner car of Matt Dalton, Vin Barletta and Patrick Gallagher in thirteenth. The #27 Auto Technic Racing BMW of Roland, Austin Krainz, and Stevan McAleer finished in fifteenth. The Team ACP – Tangerine BMWs finished in 20th and 21st.
The Team ACP – Tangerine #94 finished 21st.
Hopefully, the sanctioning body will adjust the BMWs before the next race at Sebring in mid-March. They were clearly uncompetitive at Daytona, with other cars (particularly the Porsches and Mustangs) just driving past the BMWs on the banking. The #39 had the fastest lap in the race, with a 1:54.583, but the fastest lap put in by the winning McLaren was a 1:52.625, and the top five cars all had the fastest laps under 1:53.
The next Michelin Pilot Challenge race will be at Sebring in Florida on the weekend of March 14th-15th.
—David Haueter
[Photos by David Haueter]
