For motorsports fans, the Jan. 24-25, 2026, weekend was the best possible time for a winter storm to keep most of the country indoors. The Rolex 24 At Daytona began on Saturday and stretched into Sunday – and the SCCA showed up to play a starring role.
Let’s start out with those who show up to support motorsports events around the world and rarely get the public credit they deserve – those on the corners of every turn in the Daytona infield. Through Central Florida Region SCCA, the Club supported the event with 170 corner marshals and another 20 support staff – all volunteers! They got their money’s worth, as the event had a record full course caution period of more than six and a half hours overnight due to fog.
But the opener to the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship’s season (led by recent SCCA Hall of Fame inductee John Doonan) was full of SCCA stars on the track.
That begins with the battle for the overall race win. For the third year in a row, Porsche Penske Motorsport scored the overall victory in a Porsche 963. Of course, we all remember that team’s owner, Roger Penske, for his 1960, 1962, and 1963 President’s Cup wins and his 1961 Kimberly Cup award before entering the SCCA Hall of Fame, but he’s done a few other things in motorsports as well. The 88-year-old was on his team’s pit box for the entire race once again.
After 2,500-plus miles, that Porsche was just 1.569 seconds ahead of the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R. That Cadillac invited 2021 Jim Fitzgerald Award winner as SCCA’s top Rookie, Connor Zilisch, to contribute. And of course the 19-year-old contributed, just weeks before his rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series begins.
CrowdStrike Racing by APR claimed victory in a very competitive LMP2 class, overcoming a first-lap incident seconds into the 24-hour race to win. SCCA member George Kurtz earned his first win in Daytona after a narrow miss a year ago, adding a watch to his collection. A lap behind was SCCA’s Ben Keating in the Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Oreca, ultimately crossing the line sixth in class.
The GT ranks were also full of SCCA stars.
That starts in GTD Pro, where SCCA fingerprints were all over the race champs. The first car across the line was the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo, and once again the team owner, Paul Miller, is a former SCCA racer. One of the top drivers in that car is BMW works driver Neil Verhagen, the 2016 Formula F National Champion, Jim Fitzgerald Award winner and Mark Donohue Award winner from the Road Race Drivers Club.
In the GTD class we saw Turner Motorsports, owned by former SCCA racer Will Turner, feature a pair of second generation SCCA members behind the wheel. Turner’s BMW M4 GT3 Evo led more than 100 laps before falling back to 10th near the end. Patrick Gallagher is a multi-time National Champion, and Robby Foley got his start as a Junior Karter in SCCA autocross before Club Racing and becoming a pro.
It wasn’t their day in the results, but a trio of coverboys competed. IndyCar star and driver of the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 Kyle Kirkwood (SportsCar Magazine in February 2019) finished 10th in the class. Kenton Koch (twice on SportsCar’s cover – January 2015 and June 2020) finished seventh in GTD in the Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo. Dillon Machavern’s (June 2019 cover) RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R only lasted five laps before their day ended in a Turn 1 incident, but he was joined by Eric Zitza – grandson of SCCA Hall of Famer Harro Zitza.
2013 SCCA Jim Fitzgerald Award winner and 2016 Runoffs champ Trent Hindman took a run at the watch, finishing eighth in GTD in the Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo. RLL Team McLaren’s 720S GT3 Evo was the GTD Pro class pole sitter, led by former SCCA Champ and Hall of Fame member Bobby Rahal as their team owner.
And that was just the big show!
Even more names showed up throughout the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge four-hour race on Friday, many of them at the front of the field.
SCCA’s Road Racing program remains as relevant as ever, providing a launching pad to IMSA’s professional racing programs throughout their system.
Photo caption: SCCA Hall of Famer and motorsports legend Roger Penske (right) celebrates after his team won the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January 2026.
Photo courtesy Porsche
