As Daytona rolls around once more, heralding the start of the sportscar racing season I’m happy to say Motornerd returns to give my account of the Florida epic. The blog now has a year of experience behind it, and with so much to look out for across the event it brings a slight restructure to my race reporting! I’ll be breaking down each class in order, which should hopefully add more flow and proffessionalism to what once was largely a wall of text.

On Saturday, it was the Whelen Caddillac who took pole position in the top class, and so leading the 60 strong field down into turn one would be 2020 Rolex 24 winner Renger Van De Zande’s #93 Acura alongside the #40 Cadillac of Louis Deletraz, as the 2026 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship went green. Here’s the lowdown on the first three hours of proceedings. Jeremy Clarke’s #343 Inter Europol squad led the LMP2 field away, in GTD Pro it was Alexander Simms’ #1 Corvette while GTD was headed by the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, Zacharie Robichon given the starting orders.

GTP – Porsche Dominate Opening Hours Before #6 Suffers Issues, Aston Running Smooth on Rolex Debut

Ahead of the carnage, Filipe Nasr’s #7 Porsche took the lea from the #93 and held it once conditions went back to green while behind the #24 BMW of Dries Vanthoor spun and was lucky to escape unharmed. Kevin Estre soon joined him to make it a Porsche 1-2 in the first hour, #7 leading #6 and they set about establishing a calm, comfortable lead in a way they have almost perfected.

The first drive through penalty of the race went to Caddillac’s #31 Cadillac of Jack Aitken for jumping the start.

Porsche made the first stops in a predictably thoroughly planned manner, swapping the two cars just before both pulled in on the same lap just past the hour mark. Estre re-joined ahead of his teammate and continued his lead as the rest of the GTP pitstops were carried out to a tee, though Nasr would retake the lead just before the 2 hour mark.

In their second pit stops Porsche once again double stacked and carried out their first driver change, as Nasr rescinded control of the #7 to Julien Andlauer and Estre was replaced in the #6 by Laurens Vanthoor as the #6 emerged ahead of the #7. In third was now the #93 Acura.

Shortly after these stops, the #6 would peel into the pits with some sort of issue and the team was forced to work on the car before it could be released, losing considerable time and being relegated to dead last in the GTP field. It was a surprising turn of events not least because of how little pressure Porsche had been under until now, and gave the #7 an opportunity to focus on building its advantage.

For the Aston Martin crew, it was by all means a successful race in that they were keeping well out of trouble. They may have not breached the top 8 at any point but having only done one 24 Hour event at Le Mans last year this was still brand new territory for the Heart of Racing. Ross Gun and Roman De Angelis’s respective stints were clean and smooth.

LMP2 – First Corner Carnage Causes Chaos Eliminate Era, TDS and United, Allows AO to Dominate.

The drama did not wait to arrive, as into the first corner a multi car crash caused, forcing the GT cars to pick their way through the debris. The casualties were many, the carnage forcing a FCY before the first lap had been completed. TDS Racing’s #11 was the culprit, Tobias Lutke locking the rears and sending his LMP2 machine into the back of Era Motorports’ #18 and the #02 of United Autosports, while the #04 Crowdstrike APR machine was also inolved, all of which were sent into the pits with brutal damage. It was the worst possible start to the class, with a number of strong entries – including last year’s winner of the class, the #18 – suffering huge blows to their respective races. The #2 was also sent behind the wall for a brief period, and returned after 45 minutes of painstaking repairs.

In the meantime, it was the #99 gold-liveried Spike of AO Racing that took the lead, PJ Hyett taking and establishing an early lead that they pretty much held all the way through the first three hours.

The #37 of Intersport Racing lost considerable time after an early pit stop caught driver Jon Field, with the team receiving a drive through penalty for speeding it the pit lane. It re-remerged down in 53rd overall, and 9th in class – only ahead of the much delayed LMP2s involved in the first lap carnage.

The #2 would eventually go back behind the wall for United Autosports after a pit fire and suspected soft brake pedals in what had become a torrid race for the team.

The heavy attrition would continue as Francois Perrodo collided his #83 AF Corse machine with Adam Adelson’s #120 GTD Porsche of Wright Motorsports in the infield, bringing out the FCY and ending another LMP2 hopeful’s race.

GTD PRO – RLL and Risi Among Early Casualties, Ford Fight Corvette In Epic Lead Battle.

As Porsche took control of GTP, so did Corvette in GTD Pro, as Alex Sims’ #3 headed the field early on, while the sister #4 of Nicky Catsburg filed in behind as the two factory cars looked in cruise control ahead of Sun Energy1’s #75 and the #65 Ford of Fred Vervisch.

The first real drama of note came during the opening round of pitstops as a heartstopping fire broke out, smothering the #033 Triarsi Competition Ferrari in smoke. Thankfully it was dealt with swiftly, and the car was able to continue without any damage despite a brief delay. Meanwhile, Team RLL’s new McLaren crew had their first mistake, having illegally repaired the car from behind the wall and incurred a drive through penalty while the Pfaff Motorsports #9 Lamborghini also received a drive through for speeding in the pit lane.

I’m never one to hide my love of this class, and it delivered in the first three hours as the inter-team battle of the Corvettes was a great watch as before long the #64 Ford and RLL’s #59 McLaren joined the fight to make it a four way lead battle during the second hour. It’s proving incredibly competitive thus far.

Ferrari had a huge blow to their hopes, as Daniel Serra’s #62 Risi Competizione 296 had a huge accident that saw the car limp along the backstretch before pulling off with a demolished front right bodywork and tyre, which also delaminated. It was absolutely heartbreaking for a longstanding team that was running without sponsors in this event, bringing out the FCY as it never made it back to the pits.

Team RLL’s #59 also suffered electronical issues during the third hour, which hampered them severely and caused them to plummet through the pack. It had been a promising start for their new McLaren partnership helped by good running from Dean MacDonald, but for now they were stranded in their garage.

Ford meanwhile took a 1-2 lead ahead of the two Corvettes, #65 leading the sister #64 machine. The Corvette’s were running neck and neck also, with #4 now ahead of #3.

SunEnergy1 Racing’s #75 of Kenny Habul had struggled so far, having spun earlier they also received a 100 second stop and go penalty for breaching virtual energy limits with Will Power currently in the car they plummeted to 54th overall.

GTD – Winward, Turner Looking Strong In Quiet Opening Exchanges, Muelnher and Rennsport Out.

Debutant Rennsport One’s #28 would bring out the race’s second full course yellow after a quiet start to GTD, thanks to a huge accident at the first corner. The team have graduated from the Michelin Pilot Challenge, where they are the reigning champions of the GS class. The entire front of the car was sheared off, and it became the first retirement of the 2026 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship.

The majority of the early battling was between the former class winners Winward Racing with their #57 Mercedes, with the #70 Ferrari 296 of Inception Racing and the #21 of AF Corse all swapping the lead throughout. Winward would soon shake both Ferraris off and hold the lead for itself, with the main challenge coming from the #96 BMW of Turner Motorsports.

GTD had been the quietest class thus far but explosive drama hit soon after the fifth FCY was lifted, as the Muhlner Motorsport Porsche #123 was pouring with smoke as it limped along the backstretch in a similar fashion. It became the third retirement in as many hours from the 2026 edition of the event.

In GTD Pro BMW were struggling to contend with the Americans, but Turner Motorsport were enjoying a much finer time in the other GT class, as Patrick Gallgher triple stinted his way into a strong lead by the end of the first three hours.

One more moment of drama came when the Wright Motorsports #120 Porsche collided with AF Corse’s #83 LMP2 machine on the approach to the International Horseshoe with both cars incurring heavy damage, with the Porsche hitting the barriers hard from the front ensuring we’d end the third hour under FCY conditions. Such a strong competitor joined the extensive list of retired GT cars this year.

image credit: Osajus Photography from Asheville, NC, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons