Five underrated performances from the Daytona 24 Hours
- Michael Williams
- 5 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Last weekend saw the 2026 IMSA championship get underway with its headline race, the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Despite a six-and-a-half-hour FCY due to the fog that rolled in overnight, we witnessed some excellent racing from start to finish across the four categories that took part.
The standout performances of the winning No.7 Porsche Penske Motorsport GTP and Felipe Nasr completing the three-peat, a Daytona 24 win for the No.57 WINWARD GTD Mercedes and finally a Daytona win for the No.04 CrowdStrike by APR LMP2 were among the top performances we witnessed last weekend.
However, the DIVEBOMB Sportscar team has come together to form our list of five of the underrated performances of the 2026 Daytona 24 Hours.
1.Marco Wittman/BMW M Team WRT GTP
It feels weird putting a team that finished on the podium as an underrated performer, however the turn around the BMW was able to showcase in GTP after their disappointing performances in both the Roar and qualifying make their results in the Daytona 24 one to be proud of.
The team were disappointed about their performance over the Roar weekend and this continued as they qualified eighth and ninth for the No.24 and No.25 respectively after the No.31 Cadillac lost its pole position due to a technical infringement.
They were able to be relatively competitive as everyone focused on making it to the final hours of the race, they even led at one of the restarts and both cars were in a position for a solid top five result. In the end the No.24 was able to claim an outstanding podium performance, unfortunately the No.25 slipped to eighth after a late pit stop.
Sheldon Van Der Linde, a driver of the No.24 car, labelled it as “one of the most surprising podiums of my career”. Adding that no one “expected us to be able to fight for victory before the race”, illustrating just how positive the race ended up being for the team, especially as WRT made their IMSA GTP debut.
Despite the No.25 slipping down to eighth, their performance should not be ignored. Especially the brilliance that Marco Wittman was able to display in the final segments of the race. Wittman was the one who was driving the No.25 BMW when it led the field to green with just under four and half hours remaining. He was then able to hold the two factory Porsche’s behind him for a substantial amount of time, but eventually lost the lead.
Throughout the entirety of the race BMW seemed to be more competitive than they would’ve expected, being ahead of the two Acura’s and the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac’s come the chequered flag. Marco Wittman was certainly a standout amongst their GTP drivers.
It made for an excellent weekend for WRT as they claimed a podium, combined with BMW’s win in GTD Pro with the No.1 Paul Miller Racing car.
2.PJ Hyett
The LMP2 class showed some of the best racing action across the Rolex 24, despite the messy race start. The No.99 AO Racing car was in the mix for the win for large parts of the race, but for a mixture of reasons fell to fifth in class by the end of the race. An excellent line up comprising PJ Hyett, young star Jonny Edgar, former IMSA GTP champion Dane Cameron and IndyCar driver Christian Rasmussen.
Dane Cameron was unsurprisingly quick and Edgar was also a top performing driver, with Rasmussen being on pace too. However, the performance of PJ Hyett shouldn’t be overlooked. Hyett impressed, especially in the early parts of the race when teams looked to use up as much of the Bronze driver time as possible.
Hyett was able to build a gap of 30-40 seconds in the opening stints of the race, not just over fellow bronze drivers, but over higher graded drivers as well. It was also impressive how long Hyett remained in the car after the race start, illustrating the teams’ trust in him to keep the car near the front of the class.
There’s an increasingly strong argument for Hyett to be considered one of the quickest Bronze drivers in the world right now. Could he and AO Racing be on for another double title in both IMSA and ELMS (European Le Mans Series) in the LMP2 class?
3.No.75 Express GTD Pro
Maro Engel’s efforts to hold onto the GTD Pro class lead in the final stints of the race were nothing short of exceptional. He unfortunately just missed out, bringing the No.75 Mercedes home second in class. The team were just one of two cars in GTD Pro to field a Bronze driver alongside the No.48 WINWARD Mercedes.
A largely underrated line up of Kenny Habul, Will Power, Chaz Mostert and Engel nearly made it a double win for Mercedes in the GT classes. The length of the race and the sheer competitiveness of both GT classes make it hard to determine a winner up until the last segments of the race, but the No.75 emerged as a serious contender for the win.
Engel led the class with an hour remaining, but lost it during the final pit stops to Dan Harper in the No.1 BMW. He was however able to bring the gap down across the final stint, from around five seconds down to just above two seconds. Unfortunately, Harper was able to hold onto the win, but Engel’s driving in the final few stints were impressive. The contributions of Habul, Power and Mostert must be acknowledged as well, a great team performance from a very talented and dynamic set of drivers.
4.Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller
For the majority of the race, many of us would’ve picked either Corvette to be the favourites to win the GTD Pro class. However, it all fell apart for the team in dramatic fashion, illustrating the true nature of a 24 hour race.
The No.3 car started from the class pole, with the No.4 down in seventh. Two very strong driver line ups impressed in the early parts of the race, being at the top end of the GTD Pro field and even running 1-2 for a significant amount of time.
The team are without a doubt one of the most experienced and highly performing crews to operate in the GT classes and are always in contention for both the Daytona 24 and the season long championships. However, the team were massively unlucky as the race unfolded in Daytona.
Firstly, the No.3 was subject to what appeared to be a freak suspension failure, with Antonio Garcia showcasing his experience by keeping the car out of the wall as he recovered to the pits. The car had to return behind the pit wall for extensive repairs, but was able to return to the track later on in the race.
The No.4 remained competitive as we approached the critical hours, but Nico Varrone was pushed wide and off track at the Western Horseshoe by James Calado in the No.033 Triarsi Ferrari. Varrone lost more than a handful of positions and fell down the running order. Calado later received a penalty for incident responsibility, with Varrone labelling him a ‘dirty driver’.
Alexander Sims, driver of the No.3, stated that “The real shame is that it didn’t just happen to one car, both had issues to comprise the end result.”
A rather anticlimactic end for Corvette after showing so much potential early on, but it certainly provides promising signs for what is to come later in the year.
5.No.9 Pfaff Motorsports
Pfaff Motorsports and their Lamborghini GT3 highlighted the pure determination and strategic mindset that every team must have in order to perform in races like the Daytona 24 Hours.
The team received several setbacks throughout the race that resulted in them going multiple laps down. The team impressed off track as they made an array of strategic decisions that saw them gain laps back consistently and provide the drivers with a chance of going for the win in the critical final parts of the race.
The Canadian team ended the race sixth in class, somewhat dampening the efforts made by the team. However, with there being so many cars in contention for the GTD Pro win and podium places throughout the race, the performance from Pfaff both on and off track makes it one that should be celebrated more than it potentially has been.
The team are one of the most experienced on the grid, and they showed that in the best way possible as they highlighted the strategic side of IMSA and endurance racing and were able to maximise their potential despite being hit with several complications that may have broken others’ spirit.
After an entertaining Rolex 24, IMSA returns to action for the Sebring 12 Hours in March.
