By RJ O’Connell from Racer.com – Mar 20, 2026, 7:50 AM ET

JDC-Miller MotorSports began 2026 in a very interesting position within the world of prototype sports car racing’s top category, as the last true privateer left standing in IMSA GTP.

Entering its famous yellow “Banana Boat” No. 85 Porsche 963 with the young driver trio of Tijmen van der Helm, Nico Pino and Kaylen Frederick, JDC-Miller MotorSports finished seventh in the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, only one place lower than its previous efforts with the 963 in 2024 and 2025.

Besides JDC’s managing partner John Church, driving advisor Richard Westbrook is an integral member of the team’s management who boasts over two decades of experience racing at the highest levels. And the Englishman believes that Daytona could have gone even better, with some better fortune at crucial times.

“Honestly, the Roar (Before The 24) week was awesome. And then the practice sessions leading up to qualifying, the guys were super happy with the car,” Westbrook tells RACER. “We had a really strong first half of the race – we led for a good period of time. But we did lose some performance due to damage on the floor of the car, which created some additional drag.

“Daytona is always the toughest race for us,” he laments. “It really is hard on the equipment. It happened to us in the last couple of years. Going into the last hour, we didn’t quite have the package for the win, but honestly, I think a P4 or P5 would have been a fairer reflection of where our pace was, where we should have finished.”

While it may not have the latest joker updates, JDC-Miller’s Porsche punched above its weight at Daytona, defying the doom-and-gloomers. Brandon Badraoui/Lumen via Getty Images

And this was without the 2026 package of Evo “joker” updates to the Porsche 963, which include changes to the diffuser, engine cover and splitter tuned towards aerodynamic efficiency. It also came with a driver line-up with an average age of 22, none of whom are works or factory-contracted drivers, or had previous factory racing experience.

Even as the last true privateer left standing in IMSA’s top class, though, Westbrook makes clear JDC-Miller MotorSports needs no one’s pity. Together with IMSA and Porsche, the team worked out a solution that would allow JDC-Miller to keep racing on this year with the 2025-spec 963 that it finished last season with, instead of purchasing the 2026 Evo package.

One would figure that this new provision in IMSA’s sporting regulations – allowing previous homologations on the current year’s grid – would be met warmly, keeping a tenured team on the grid instead of turning it away. Yet Westbrook was unpleasantly surprised when the general reaction to this news was bleak pessimism about the team’s future, and the future of top-class racing in IMSA and, by extension, the FIA World Endurance Championship.

“It’s ridiculous,” Westbrook says flatly. “It’s been well documented about the price of upgrading and stuff like that. But honestly, from my perspective, we really struggled last year. There was a major update (at the) beginning of ’25 and we couldn’t find the sweet spot of the car. By the end of the year, we got the car in a window which we felt was really strong. We ended the year in a good place.

“There was a question mark on the ’26 update, and whether that was right for us. Obviously GTP is… you know, everyone talks about it being the golden era of motorsport but we are down to one privateer worldwide now,” Westbrook notes, following Proton’s WEC departure, the closure of boutique Hypercar constructors like Glickenhaus and Isotta Fraschini, and the Asian Le Mans Series’ Hypercar class being a year away from arrival.

No jokers? No problem. Brandon Badraoui/Lumen via Getty Images

While concerns about the cost to participate in high-level sports car racing are well founded, Westbrook’s view is more measured and less sensationalized.

“We’re not sitting here with our begging bowl asking for everyone to help us, but it is very different for a private team. We are at a disadvantage – and we need to play to our strengths,” he says.

“You could argue, you would only do an update if it’s going to go quicker. But we feel really confident with our package right now. We showed it in Daytona – all the drivers were all very comfortable with the car, the balance of the car. We’ve really got a hold on our package right now, and we need to continue developing that.

“So it’s a bit disappointing when you read all those negative comments, like, ‘This is the end of the formula,’ but it’s not. It’ll be the end of the formula if you lose cars on the grid. I’m not saying privateers are the be-all and end-all of this golden era but you do need them. They do serve a purpose and it is a worry that we’re the only ones in the world that are a private team – but we’re going to make the most of it.”

JDC-Miller got a boost in the form of a returning primary sponsor, Mustang Sampling. This brought with it its signature black and gold livery, and its customary No. 5 plate, to the team for the remainder of the 2026 season. It begins at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, a race that JDC-Miller, during its days as a Cadillac DPi customer team, won five years ago.

JDC-Miller has a long-term plan in place through 2027, which the team hopes to reveal in due course, and the long-rumored second JDC-Miller 963 entry is still in play if the right opportunity arises.

“The team has two cars, (we) have the capability of absolutely running those two cars on a race weekend. Right now, it’s not the focus,” Westbrook says of GTP expansion plans. “But if there was an opportunity to bring the second car out for, maybe, some long-distance races, we would definitely look at it. It’s definitely not something that we’ve closed the book on.

“I’d love to get that car out, because, as I know from 2023 (with Chip Ganassi Racing in WEC) when we were just the sole Cadillac, it’s always better having two cars than one, because you’ve got double the data, and data is everything.”

Moving forward with what JDC-Miller MotorSports has right now, however – which is its one black and gold No. 5 Porsche 963, in 2025-spec with the youngest driver line-up in IMSA GTP – Westbrook has lofty ambitions despite the low points that the team went through for a lot of last season.

“I think consistent top-five finishes and to be sneaking in for a podium, that’s realistic,” Westbrook reckons. “With IMSA racing, if you’re in the right spot at the right time, you can turn those podiums, top fives, into wins. And that’s where we need to be. The drivers are all hungry. None of them are like, ‘We’re in a private car, so we’ve got no chance of winning.’ There’s none of that attitude and I wouldn’t allow that in our team.

“We may be a privateer, but we’re punching above our weight. The goal, and what we are going to do, is take the fight to the factory teams. It’s as simple as that. Because if we’re not going to do that, there’s no point of being there – and trust me, coming in P9 and P10 for the first half of last year was absolutely painful, I would say even more painful than when I was driving myself. None of us want to be there.

“We’re looking forward now: We’ve shown we had pace in the daytime; unfortunately, we were not able to do it for 24 hours. But we’ve got three young, hungry drivers that work their socks off, that want to fight at the front. And we’re going to give them that.”