Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing have announced a multi-year collaboration with McLaren in IMSA's GTD PRO class.
On Wednesday afternoon it was confirmed the team would run a sole McLaren 720S GT3 EVO in the PRO class, carrying the #59 in honour of the 1995 overall 24H Le Mans winning F1 GTR.
Currently, this is set to be the only McLaren in the PRO division, and the British marque is still without a class win in IMSA competition – previous programmes included Pfaff Motorsport's 2024 PRO effort, Inception Racing's GTD entry in 2022-mid 2024, and Compass Racing's short-lived GTD entry.
The full-season driver squad is yet to be confirmed.
The move marks a return to the GTD PRO ranks of North American competition for the first time since 2022, but the team previously ran a pair of M8 GTEs in the GTLM class culminating in back-to-back Rolex 24 at Daytona victories in 2019-20.
In July, it was confirmed that Team RLL would no longer be running the BMW factory effort in GTP, which has latterly been taken up by Team WRT, ending a 17-year relationship with the German manufacturer and leading to much speculation about the future of the Indiana-based team.
The new collaboration sees Team RLL join the likes of Pratt Miller Motorsports, AO Racing, Ford Multimatic, Pfaff Motorsports and Paul Miller Racing in the GTD PRO division.
RLL Team McLaren will make their IMSA event debut at the Daytona sanctioned test on 15-16 November.
Bobby Rahal, co-owner of Team RLL said in today's statement, “As someone who has always valued the rich history of motorsport, partnering with a brand as iconic as McLaren is truly exciting. 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.”