A winless 2025 season in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge did not sit well with Robin Liddell and Frank DePew. In fact, the streak stretched nearly two years, since March 2024 at Sebring International Raceway. But Liddell and DePew, assisted by Andrew Davis, righted that wrong Friday at Daytona International Speedway by taking the Grand Sport (GS) class and overall victory in the BMW M Endurance Challenge to open the 2026 campaign.
Liddell took the No. 71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo across the line ahead of the similar No. 14 Aston Martin fielded by Circle H Racing and driven by David Hampton, Thomas Merrill, and Martin Sarukhanyan by 2.691 seconds, with Bryce Ward and Daan Arrow trailing by 23.365 seconds in third in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT GT4.
With 18 GS wins, Liddell ranks fifth all time in Michelin Pilot Challenge competition, while DePew has partnered the 52-year-old Scotsman for nine of those victories. Surprisingly, this marked Liddell’s first Daytona win in Michelin Pilot Challenge, beating his best result of second in 2015, a season where he and Davis won the GS championship. He is a past Rolex 24 class winner in GT in 2004, finishing second overall.
This one came from deep in the 35-car field – the Rebel Rock Aston started 22nd and dropped to 33rd place on the opening lap – and was sparked by the decision to take four tires in the last pit stop rather than trying to save time by mounting just two.
Liddell passed Merrill for the lead with 17 minutes remaining in the first of two four-hour events on the 10-race Michelin Pilot Challenge slate and pulled away to the finish. Meanwhile, Arrow rallied the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG to a podium finish as the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Nate Cicero and Robert Noaker faded to sixth place in the closing laps.
TCR Class
Denis Dupont and Preston Brown have gone back-to-back at Daytona, sharing the No. 76 Herta Hyundai, continuing their run of top form in four-hour races. They won at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2024 and Daytona in 2025, while coming second at Mid-Ohio in 2025. They only have one two-hour race win, at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 2025.
The first three hours saw a high volume of yellow-flag running, and the race really came into its own in the last 90 minutes – or the majority of a standard-length two-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race.
The polesitting Cupra and its counterparts fell by the wayside early with a myriad of penalties and incidents in the opening stanza, leaving their pace without a result for the day.
It appeared as though Mario Farnbacher would capitalize in a stand-in role at Pegram Racing, in the No. 72 Honda Civic FL5 TCR he shared with Riley Pegram. The younger Pegram, daughter of Larry, raced with Farnbacher this race as he stood in for the recuperating Larry.
Farnbacher held off Bryson Morris in the No. 33 Herta Hyundai, before its final scheduled pit stop where it all came awry. The No. 72 car was assessed a drive-through penalty for tires without crew and then went off course at Turn 6 after the penalty was assessed after a right front tire went down.
While Morris moved into the lead, Dupont then got ahead of Morris with 16 minutes to go. Exiting Turn 3, Dupont got a stronger run to Morris’ outside, attempted the pass into the kink and completed it at Turn 5. The ensuing momentum coupled with Morris’ slightly slower exit opened the door for Cameron Lawrence to capitalize at the next corner, going around the outside of the Morris on NASCAR 1 and 2 to go into second.
Dupont reflected on the move, a year after he’d also beat the same No. 33 Herta Hyundai in a photo finish to secure Herta’s first team win at Daytona. This was a much larger margin of victory though; Dupont beat Morris by 0.408 of a second today, after winning over Morris’ then-teammate Mark Wilkins by 0.067 of a second last year.
Photos: IMSA
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