Winward Racing was fastest in the morning session on the final day of this weekend’s IMSA Sanctioned Test at Daytona International Speedway, with its pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs topping both GT classes.
With the prototypes finishing their running yesterday, today’s seven hours of track time is dedicated exclusively to the nine GTD PRO and eight GTD cars present at the test.
Maxime Martin was quickest in the four-hour morning session with a 1:47.152, which the Belgian set inside the opening 25 minutes aboard the GTD PRO-entered #48 Mercedes-AMG.
This was 0.004 seconds faster than the best GT time set yesterday, which was achieved by Lucas Auer aboard Winward’s sister car.
Second in GTD PRO, 0.532 seconds behind, was Dean MacDonald in the #59 RLL Team McLaren GT3 Evo, which is continuing to find pace after a slow start to the test, and dipped below the 1:48-mark for the first time. Will Power was third fastest in the #75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG.
Fourth in GTD PRO was Jack Hawksworth in the #14 Lexus RC F GT3, ahead of the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3, aboard which Andrea Caldarelli set the car’s best lap time around the 3.56-mile venue so far, a 1:48.102.
Winward Racing’s GTD-entered #57 Mercedes-AMG was second fastest overall in the hands of Philip Ellis, with the Briton setting a 1:47.323 to make it a 1-2 for the two-time GTD championship winning squad, alongside its sweep of the classes.
Ellis enjoyed a brief spell on top overall in the opening minutes before being surpassed by Martin.
The #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Nicki Thiim got the closest to Ellis’ time, ending up 0.490 seconds back.
Callum Ilott was third fastest in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2), with the #21 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Tommaso Mosca, and the #28 RS1 Porsche of Jan Heylen, completing the top five.
The Ferrari was forced to sit out the opening 30 minutes of this morning’s running, as a consequence of the Italian outfit using a 2025-spec Michelin tyre yesterday, as opposed to the 2026 version mandated for this test.
Only a single red flag, for debris at turn seven shortly before the halfway mark, interrupted proceedings.
The majority of fast times came at the start of the session, with the track becoming increasingly empty towards the end as teams tick more and more items off of their programmes. In fact, at moments there was just a single car out on circuit.
The mileage count was led by the #911 Manthey Porsche, with the German outfit, which has often been amongst the first out on track in each session this weekend, completing 101 laps.
One team’s test has come to an early end, as Myers Riley Motorsports has called it a day with its #16 Ford Mustang GT3 Evo after an engine problem struck with just eight laps on the board.
This weekend’s running concludes with three more hours of track time this afternoon.
Images © Brandon Badraoui / IMSA / Lumen
