As the opening quarter of 2026's Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona came to a close Saturday evening, the GTP leaders had to battle through GTD and GTD Pro traffic. The No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 privateer entry was overtaken by the No.
7 Porsche Penske 963 as Laurin Heinrich took the wheel for the back-half of his first double stint as a Porsche factory driver. The young JDC team was leading the race through the sixth hour, off sequence with pit stops after electing not to pit in the most recent cycle. Tijmen van der Helm battled hard to keep the No.
7 Porsche and the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 behind. Meanwhile, BMW took the next two sports with the No.
25 leading the No. 24 M Hybrid V8 which sustained light damage following its spin on the opening lap. The N0.
R followed in sixth ahead of the NO. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac driven by Connor Zilisch, in his GTP debut. The first six hours of the race saw five leading GTP entries, with the No.
7 Porsche Penske being the favorite. Shortly after the opening hour, the No. 7 lost the lead to its sister entry, the No.
6 Porsche 963, before the Porsche piloted by Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, and Matt Campbell faded after sustaining damage following a collision with an LMP2 car. The No. 6 Porsche Penske soon faded following a quick secondary pit stop due to side wall and floor damage sustained after a collision with an LMP2 car.
Vanthoor shared on X around the four-hour mark that the No. 6 sustained significant damage to the floor in the second hour and that it is irreparable, hindering the Porsche entry for the rest of the race. The No.
6 car was running in eighth at the end of the first six hours. The No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie suffered an electrical issue that saw it lose power multiple times on track before it was sent behind the wall for repairs.
It would rejoin 15 laps later, deep in the multi-class pack. AO Racing's No. 99 Oreca leads the LMP2 class with PJ Hyatt pulling up a stellar stint and at one point leading the class by more than 30 seconds.
The tight battle for control of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona is reflecting the high level of competition in the GTP class, with multiple teams pushing each other to the limit. As the race progresses, it will be interesting to see how the teams adapt to the changing conditions and make strategic decisions to stay ahead.
