MacDonald and Vips Join the GTD PRO Lineup for the Rolex 24 At Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) today announced Max Esterson and Nikita Johnson as its full-season GTD PRO (Grand Touring Daytona Pro) drivers for the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with Dean MacDonald and Jüri Vips joining the RLL Team McLaren lineup for the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The 64th running of the iconic endurance race will mark the competitive debut of RLL Team McLaren.
The program is a multi-year collaboration with McLaren Automotive that will see the team return to IMSA’s GTD PRO class in 2026 with the McLaren GT3 EVO. The team participated in the IMSA test at Daytona International Speedway November 15-16 with Esterson, Vips and MacDonald and in the No. 59 entry.
The season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona marks McLaren Automotive’s return to the fiercely competitive GTD PRO category, which in 2025 featured top manufacturers including Aston Martin, BMW, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes-AMG, and Porsche.
McLaren made its mark in sports car racing in 1995 with the F1 GTR, writing history by winning that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Returning to sports car racing in 2012 with the championship-winning 12C GT3, McLaren continues to be a force on the international GT scene. The current GT3 EVO has proven to be very successful, winning races in FIA World Endurance Championship, GT World Challenge Europe series and other regional and domestic series.
RLL, founded in 1992 and known for its success across both open-wheel and sports car racing, has a rich history in sports car competition. The team first entered sports car racing in 2007, fielding a Porsche 997 GT3 RSR in the American Le Mans Series GT2 class with drivers Tommy Milner and Ralf Kelleners. Despite missing three of 12 rounds, RLL finished fourth in the championship, highlighted by multiple podiums. The following year, the team campaigned an Aston Martin DB9 in select SCCA World Challenge events, earning a pole and runner-up finish at Road Atlanta.
From 2009 to 2025, RLL partnered with BMW Motorsport in a successful 17-year collaboration that delivered numerous race wins and championships across multiple GT platforms and culminated with a race and pole-winning program in the GTP class from 2023-2025. The team previously competed in IMSA’s GTD PRO class under the BMW M Team RLL banner in 2022 while simultaneously preparing for their two-car factory GTP program debut in 2023. During that period, RLL secured pole position at Watkins Glen and GTD PRO podium finishes at Laguna Seca and Petit Le Mans.
The 2026 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship season begins with the 64th Rolex 24 at Daytona, January 24-25. The 10-race GTD PRO schedule includes well known venues such as Daytona International Speedway, Sebring International Raceway, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, among others. All races can be streamed live in their entirety on NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports App with authentication or Peacock Premium. For more information about the team or series, please visit www.rahal.com or www.imsa.com.
QUOTEBOARD:
MAX ESTERSON, Driver of the No. 59 McLaren: “After racing in single seaters my whole career up to this point, making the switch to IMSA in the GTD PRO class is a very big and exciting new chapter for me. It’s great to be joining such a strong and established team like RLL and I’m excited to see what we can do together with McLaren this season starting at Daytona.”
NIKITA JOHNSON, Driver of the No. 59 McLaren: “I am very happy and honored to help build the new McLaren era with RLL and I am excited to run the full-year with Max. As a Florida native, I am especially excited to start it all off in Daytona with a great four-driver lineup. Thank you to all of RLL for this opportunity.”
DEAN MACDONALD, Driver of the No. 59 McLaren: “I’m very happy to be doing my first Daytona 24 hour race and to be doing it with RLL in the McLaren makes it even more exciting. I got my first taste of Daytona and working with the team not too long ago and I believe we can go into the race challenging for a win in the GTD PRO class so I can’t wait to finally get going again at the ROAR!”
JURI VIPS, Driver of the No. 59 McLaren: “I’m excited to get my first taste of endurance racing, especially at such an iconic event like the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The test went well; there were no big hiccups, and we got a lot of mileage. I had a lot of things to get used to. Driving a GT3 car is very different to anything I’ve done before but I’ve got a much better idea now. I feel good and prepared; McLaren has been really helpful as well with everything to get me up to speed with all the systems and things they have in the car. I’m looking forward to it.”