RLL partners with McLaren for GTD PRO entry

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's future in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has been ensured with today's announcement that the team will run the No. 59 McLaren GT3 EVO (720S) in the GTD PRO class, as part of a multi-year collaboration between the team and manufacturer.

RLL will enter one McLaren in 2026, with plans in the works to add a second car in 2027. The team will receive its first GT3 EVO chassis later this week, and will participate in next week's IMSA Sanctioned Test at Daytona. Full-season drivers for the 2026 season will be announced at a later date.

“As someone who has always valued the rich history of motorsport, partnering with a brand as iconic as McLaren is truly exciting," said team co-owner Bobby Rahal. "The Rahal legacy began with my father Mike’s passion for sports car racing, and to now launch this new chapter with such a storied partner is something we take tremendous pride in.”

Jay Frye, president of RLL, said, “McLaren is a globally renowned brand, perfectly aligned with the ambition of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Together, we’re not just building a team – we’re building a championship-caliber program for the seasons ahead.”

The partnership will mark the first time since 2024 that McLaren will have an entry in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's GTD PRO category, when Pfaff Motorsports ran the GT3 EVO for a single season. Already, the GT3 EVO has won races in the FIA World Endurance Championship and GT World Challenge Europe, but is still searching for its first IMSA victory.

In its first year of sports car racing in 2007, the team entered a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997), and led by Tommy Milner and Ralf Kelleners, finished fourth in the American Le Mans Series GT2 teams' championship. After that, Milner ran a part-time campaign with the squad in the 2008 SPEED World Challenge, driving an Aston Martin DB9.

RLL's relationship with BMW M Motorsport, which began in 2009, ended after the 2025 season when it was announced that the team's agreement to be the service partner for the BMW M Hybrid V8 would not be renewed.

During that 17-year partnership, BMW M Team RLL won back-to-back ALMS GT championships in 2010–11, back-to-back 12 Hours of Sebring class wins in 2011–12, a GTLM class win at Petit Le Mans in 2017, and back-to-back Rolex 24 At Daytona GTLM wins in 2019–20. The team also gave the M Hybrid V8 prototype its first victory and won at least one race in the last three years.

RLL's new No. 59 pays homage to the number of the McLaren F1 GTR that took the marque's first victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1995.

Rivals in the NTT IndyCar Series, and now allies in IMSA, the collaboration between RLL and McLaren will join a strong full-season GTD PRO grid that also features two-car teams from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and Ford Multimatic Motorsports, as well as single-car efforts from Paul Miller Racing, Pfaff Motorsports, Vasser Sullivan Racing and AO Racing.