Nine Porsche race cars tackle the 24 Hours of Daytona

Daytona Beach, Fla. The 2026 season kicks off with a highlight: the 64th edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona will be contested on the Daytona International Speedway in Florida, January 24-25. Three Porsche 963 cars compete in the top GTP class of the IMSA championship: Porsche Penske Motorsport’s pair of hybrid prototypes will line up alongside the No. 85 entry from the JDC-Miller MotorSports customer squad.

“We had a perfect run in the IMSA series over the past two years, and we’d like to continue this winning streak in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Porsche’s inaugural Le Mans class win and the 60th anniversary of Team Penske,” Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport, said. “We’re certainly not resting on the laurels of past successes. Together with our partners, we’re systematically working on further refinements. We’ve prepared meticulously and we’re looking forward to a thrilling start to the season with the Porsche 963. We have clear goals: to bring home our third Daytona win in a row and more titles!”

Porsche Penske Motorsport’s new driver lineup for 2026

The two factory drivers Kévin Estre from France and Laurens Vanthoor from Belgium will share the cockpit of the No. 6 Porsche 963 for the entire season. In Daytona, the pair receive support from reigning IMSA champion Matt Campbell from Australia. In the No. 7 sister car, Felipe Nasr from Brazil and Frenchman Julien Andlauer will share driving duties. At the season-opener, the new German Porsche factory driver Laurin Heinrich completes the roster.

The two factory-run Porsche 963 contest the 2026 season featuring additional aerodynamic refinements. Porsche Motorsport refined the ‘Made in Flacht’ hybrid prototype to deliver more consistent performance across a variety of tracks. The improvements were evident during the three-day test sessions last weekend (January 16-18): in all six ‘Roar’ sessions, the Porsche 963 cars were among the front-runners, often topping the timesheets.

Porsche customer teams compete in three classes

Manthey fields the No. 911 decked out in the famous “Grello” livery during its IMSA debut. Driving duties will be shared between Klaus Bachler from Austria and Riccardo Feller from Switzerland alongside two DTM champions, the defending titleholder Ayhancan Güven from Turkey and 2023 champion Thomas Preining from Austria. The 2024 GTD Pro champions AO Racing and “Rexy” join Manthey as class contenders.

Porsche has four contenders in the GTD class at Daytona. Wright Motorsports returns in the No. 120 911 after a second-place finish at Daytona a season ago. Manthey Racing’s second car, the No. 912 911, brings defending WEC class champion Ryan Hardwick home to the states for Michelin Endurance Cup races. Both the No. 123 Muehlner Motorsports 911 and the No. 28 RS1 911 each bring defending series champions to the race. Ryan Yardley, in the Muehlner car, is last season’s Porsche Carrera Cup North America, while Jan Heylen helped RS1 to a Michelin Pilot Challenge title in a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.

Overview of all Porsche cars and drivers

Further information

The improved GT3 racer from Weissach: Porsche 911 GT3 R
All information on the crew: Team Penske
Photos and videos: Porsche at the 24 Hours of Daytona
All entries at a glance: Entry list
Practice, qualifying and race: Event schedule
Lap times and intervals: Live timing
The on-screen action: Peacock (US Subscribers) Livestream (only available outside USA/Canada)
Where it all happens: Daytona circuit map
The big race in numbers: Daytona statistics
Record winner at Daytona: Porsche’s success story

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