BMW’s “Roar Before the 24” Was a Mixed Bag

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge series teams all come to Daytona the week before the season opener to participate in the “Roar Before the 24.” The Roar comprises three days of testing to prepare for the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the four-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge contest. The weekend also hosts the first two rounds of the VP SportsCar Challenge season.

BMW is going through a big transition in the GTP class, as they are debuting an updated M Hybrid V8 for 2026 and are doing it with a new team. Team WRT has taken over the program from Team RLL that ran it since its inception. WRT had the updated pair of M Hybrid V8s at the Roar rest with works drivers, and the team made good progress over the weekend, but Porsche made the biggest statement in the test days.

Yeah, we know, the Daytona test days are not officially representative of the speed of the cars, as teams are on their own agenda for testing, which may not include trying to set the fastest possible lap times. That being said, Porsche GTP entries set the fastest times in four of the six sessions, running 1-2-3 in two sessions and 1-2 in another. A BMW driver, Sheldon van der Linde, was the quickest GTP car in one session in the #24 BMW, but neither of the BMWs was in the top five in any other session.

We shouldn’t read into that too much, as the WRT team is getting used to new personnel and a new track, though they do have experience with the cars in the Hypercar program in the FIA WEC series. “Of course, with so many new people in the team and in a new racing series for WRT, it takes some time for everything to run perfectly,” said driver René Rast. “But my impression after the Roar is positive. Everything worked well and we were able to complete all the test sessions without any technical problems. At the moment, we are still lacking a bit of performance, so we need to make good use of the practice sessions next week to improve the balance of the car.”

BMW also has two entries in the GTD Pro and GTD classes, with Paul Miller Racing down to a single M4 GT3 EVO for this year in GTD Pro and Turner Motorsport running their M4 GT3 EVO in the GTD class. Neither of those cars proved to be particularly competitive, which saw lap times dominated by Mercedes-AMG and Ford. The #1 Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3 EVO didn’t crack the top 10 at any point of the Roar, while a Mercedes-AMG GT3 sett the fastest time in three of the GTD Pro sessions.

It was a similar story in GTD with the Turner Motorsport #96 M4 GT3 EVO, which didn’t get into the top 10 either. Ford Mustang GT3s set the fastest time in five of the sessions. Still, the BMW drivers didn’t seem all that concerned. “That was a very positive test for us,” said works driver Jens Klingmann, who will drive for Turner Motorsport in the race. “As always, we just concentrated on ourselves and our preparation for the race. Lap times didn’t matter at all. The car is reliable and we were able to complete our program as planned. We won’t know exactly where we stand until things get serious next week. I am confident that we are well prepared for the season opener.”

BMW was also well off the pace in the Michelin Pilot Challenge sessions, which were dominated the Ford Mustang GT4. Ford entries set the top seven fastest times in one session, the top five fastest times in another, and the top three in a third session. The fastest BMW times of the entire weekend were put in by the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing entry and the #95 Turner Motorsport entry, but neither of those cars placed higher than 19th.

Let’s not give up hope yet. A lot can happen in a long race, balance of performance adjustments this week may open up the performance of the BMW entries more, and we’ve also seen that the M4 GT3 and GT4 EVO models in particular often race better than they test or qualify. The Michelin Pilot Challenge race takes place this Friday at 1:45pm ET, with the Rolex 24 at Daytona set to start on Saturday at 1:40pm ET and finish exactly 24 hours later on Sunday afternoon.

The Roar Before the 24 weekend also hosted the first two rounds of the VP SportsCar Challenge series, which features two BMW entries in the GSX class for GT4-spec cars. Courtney Crone finished seventh in the first race in the #35 CarBahn Motorsports M4 GT4 EVO, then followed that up with a fourth-place finish in a wet race two. Tiger Tari drove the #26 Auto Technic Racing M4 GT4 EVO, finishing 11th in both races. Both GSX class races were won by RAFA Racing driver Westin Workman in a Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO, which of course is a BMW Z4 with a different body. The next VP Challenge race weekend takes place at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on February 27th-28th.

—David Haueter
[Photos by Jon van Woerden]