Paul Miller Racing Wins GTD Pro in Rolex 24 at Daytona, Team WRT Third in GTP

The Rolex 24 at Daytona is the longest and most prestigious race on the IMSA calendar, drawing star drivers from around the world who want to win a Rolex watch at the famous race. The 2026 edition also drew the largest crowd in the history of the race, which ended with close battles in nearly all of the four classes. BMW teams had success, with Paul Miller Racing winning the GTD Pro class with their #1 M4 GT3 EVO, and the #24 Team WRT M Hybrid V8 making it to the podium in the GTP class.

The Paul Miller Racing team showed in qualifying that they would be a factor in the GTD Pro class, with Neil Verhagen setting the second fastest time in the session, though the car was disqualified from that result after it was found that the camber settings were slightly outside the rules, a mistake that the team owned up to. The Turner Motorsport team also had a strong qualifying in the GTD class, with Robby Foley putting the #96 M4 GT3 EVO into second on the grid, just seven-hundredths of a second off the pole of the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

In GTP qualifying, the fastest M Hybrid V8 was the #24 in the hands of Dries Vanthoor, who was down in ninth but was only eight-tenths of a second off the pole time of the #31 Cadillac V-Series R. Marco Wittmann qualified the #25 M Hybrid V8 in tenth, about a half-second behind Vanthoor. The Porsche 963’s which had dominated the practice sessions, qualified in fourth and sixth.

The race started under beautiful blue skies, and it didn’t take long for the first caution flag to fly, as several LMP2 class cars ran into each other at the first turn. The #24 BMW also spun but luckily didn’t hit anything and carried on. Once things settled down and the race got underway, the Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3 EVO started to work its way up through the GTD Pro field, with Verhagen driving to fifth in class by the end of the first hour, and the car was leading the class at the six hour mark. The Turner Motorsport M4 GT3 EVO also stayed in the top ten in the GTD class for the first quarter of the race. In GTP, the Porsche 963’s quickly moved to the front of the field and set the pace in the first six hours of the race, but the BMWs also proved to be competitive. Dries Vanthoor was running in third in the #24 at the six-hour mark, with Marco Wittmann right behind him in the #25 M Hybrid V8.

The weather stayed warm and sunny during the day on Saturday but ended up playing a major factor in the race, as fog rolled in after midnight. With corner workers and spotters unable to see clearly (not to mention the drivers), race officials flew the caution flag at 12:45am on Sunday, which lasted until 7:19am when the fog finally lifted enough to resume green flag racing. Since officials called for a caution instead of a red flag stoppage of the race, the cars had to keep circulating the track for hours at low speeds behind the safety car. It was the longest caution period in race history.

Once the race went green again on Sunday morning, BMWs were running competitively in every class. With two hours left, the #24 car was second in the GTP class, the #1 was in second in GTD Pro, and the Turner Motorsport #96 car was running third in GTD. After a very strong race, everything went wrong for the #96 with around an hour left, when they were penalized for contact with another car and received an additional penalty for a crew member not having the proper attire on during refueling.

After running in third for most of Sunday morning, the Paul Miller Racing team undercut their competitors on pit stops by making the last stop before they did, putting Dan Harper out with a full tank of fuel and eighty minutes left in the race. The pit stop was also significantly faster than that of the #75 Mercedes-AMG they had been battling with, which put Harper into the GTD Pro lead, which he held to the end to take the win just 2.23 seconds ahead of the #75 Mercedes-AMG.

The Paul Miller Racing victory in GTD Pro with drivers Neil Verhagen, Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Connor De Phillippi was BMWs first Rolex 24 win since 2020, when BMW M Team RLL won the GTLM class with the M8 GTE. It was the first win at the race for former BMW Junior Team drivers Harper, Hesse and Verhagen, and the second for De Phillippi, who won the 2019 GTLM class in an M8 GTE with Augusto Farfus, Philipp Eng and Colton Herta. “I’m just so proud of this team and everyone at BMW M Motorsport in Munich and here in the USA,” said De Phillippi. “What a team effort! We weren’t the clear favorites, but we knew we had a chance to finish on the podium or even win this weekend if we drove clean and had an undamaged car at the end. Each of us did a perfect job. Dan drove phenomenally for the last three hours – I’m really speechless. One of our rivals made a small mistake and that was all it took to take the lead – and Dan never looked back. I’m just so happy with this victory because it’s a race that’s very hard to win. I’m proud to have won with these three guys.”

In the GTP class, the battle for the overall win came down to the #7 Porsche 963 and the #31 Cadillac, with the #24 BMW running in third but well back of the leaders. The #7 ultimately prevailed, giving Porsche Penske Motorsport their third consecutive win at this race. The podium finish for the #24 BMW was a very strong result considering Team WRT was new to the program, with this being their first race after taking over from Team RLL. “It’s not often that a team is formed within a few months, joins IMSA and immediately finishes on the podium at Daytona,” said René Rast, who drove the #24 with Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns. “This shows how strong the team is and how well the co-operation with BMW M Motorsport has worked. Of course, third place is also unexpected, as we had little pace at the start of the weekend and had no idea that we would be fighting for the win and the podium. It’s a gigantic team performance.”

The #25 M Hybrid V8 of Kevin Magnussen, Marco Wittmann, Philipp Eng and Raffaele Marciello finished eighth in GTP after proving to be competitive during the race but running on a different strategy that set them back at the end with the way the caution periods played out. “When you’re in a good position as a team with two cars, you split the strategy,” said Wittmann. “We had gambled on a late yellow phase, which might even have brought us victory. Unfortunately, this poker didn’t work out. Nevertheless, we can all be proud of how we completed this race.”

In GTD, the Turner Motorsport #96 M4 GT3 EVO of Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher, Francis Selldorff and Jens Klingmann recovered from their penalties to finish tenth in the 21-car field. “We led a lot of laps, had a fast car, and ultimately, some mistakes cost us a better result,” said Foley. “But I’m proud of everybody for the car that we brought and the effort that was put in. It was a really well-executed 24-hour race up until the end, unfortunately when it counts. But I’m excited for Sebring and to take our fast hot rod to that.”

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns to Florida for the second race of the season, with the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 19th-21st, which is considered by many to be the toughest race on the schedule.

—David Haueter
[Photos by Jon van Woerden]