Early heartbreak for Sheena Monk at 2026 Rolex 24
- RACERS
- 21 minutes ago
- 5 min read
The 2026 Rolex 24 denied Sheena Monk the chance to convert promising pace into a full-distance result, despite a solid opening stint for the driver of the #16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang on her return to the IMSA GTD class.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona once again opened the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season as one of the highlight events of the endurance racing calendar, bringing the world’s top sportscar teams to the iconic Florida venue for a full week of competition. Among the GTD field in the 2026 edition were two women on the grid, including Sheena Monk, who returned to the championship after a partial 2025 campaign with an ambitious new program at Myers Riley Motorsports.
Monk, now firmly established as one of the most consistent Bronze-rated drivers in the paddock, joined the #16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 for the season-opening endurance classic. For Daytona, she was partnered by an experienced line-up: Brazilian ace Felipe Fraga, rising American Jenson Altzman, and former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean, in a quartet of international pedigree.
The weekend began positively for the Myers Riley Motorsports squad during the Roar Before the Rolex 24. After Monk had been out of the car since mid-season the year before, the test sessions were used to fine-tune the new Mustang package and to allow drivers to build rhythm and confidence. Across the sessions, the team built performance, with Monk quickly settling back into the GT3 machinery.
The #16 Mustang showed encouraging outright pace, most notably in the second practice session where the car placed an impressive third overall in GTD.
Monk would be one of the Bronze drivers to qualify the car. On a sunny Daytona afternoon, she delivered a clean lap of 1:47.220, placing the Mustang 21st in the tightly packed GTD grid.
Under clear skies, Sheena Monk was therefore entrusted with the opening stint of the Rolex 24, taking the green flag from 21st in GTD. The race barely had time to settle before chaos erupted at Turn 1, where multiple LMP2 cars tangled, scattering debris across the track and immediately triggering a full-course caution.
Monk navigated the opening confusion cleanly and used the early neutralization to gain a place, slotting ahead of the #28 Porsche to move into 20th in class. After eight minutes, the race resumed, but green-flag conditions were short-lived. Another heavy accident for Zitza’s RS1 Porsche at Turn 1 brought out a second caution, once again compressing the field. Monk again avoided trouble, keeping the #16 Mustang clean.
Once the race finally stabilized, Monk began to work her way forward. She passed Manny Franco to move into 19th in GTD and continued to build pace as the stint developed. A penalty for the #82 Dragonspeed Corvette briefly elevated her to 18th, though Franco would reclaim the spot by lap 19.
The first setback arrived when the #16 Mustang was shown the mechanical flag and called to pit lane to address a tyre operational requirement issue. The stop cost track position, dropping Monk back to 20th in class, but she returned to the track determined to rebuild momentum.
Back in traffic, Monk focused on consistency; her lap times steadily improved, and by lap 29 she broke into the 1:49s, dipping under the 1:50 barrier for the first time. She soon set her personal best of the stint at 1:49.2, as confidence was growing rapidly and fuel loads burned off.
Running off-sequence to many of her rivals, Monk climbed back to 18th in GTD and held position with a string of laps in the high 1:49s. When the first major cycle of GTD pit stops approached, she extended her run before finally stopping for fuel on lap 47, rejoining in 19th but now strategically offset.
Two hours into the race, Monk continued to deliver highly consistent laps in the low 1:50s and high 1:49s. As the second pit sequence cycled through, the #16 Mustang climbed as high as 14th in GTD. Just moments later, the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari suffered a delaminating tyre, triggering another full-course caution. Once more, the field was bunched up and suddenly, Myers Riley Motorsports found themselves back in the game. Monk brought the Mustang in when the pits opened, handing over to Romain Grosjean in 16th. The team elected to keep older tyres, aiming to capitalize on track position.
The restart on lap 70 was hectic, with immediate contact for several GTD runners and damage for the #123 Mühlner Porsche. Grosjean initially climbed to 14th but was soon issued a drive-through penalty for contact responsibility, undoing some of the progress.
After serving the penalty and falling back to 16th, Grosjean settled into a rhythm, circulating consistently in the 1:49s as he began closing on the pack ahead. Just past the three-hour mark, another massive incident reshuffled the race. The #83 LMP2 Oreca of Murry spun and was collected heavily by Adam Adelson’s Wright Porsche, eliminating both cars and bringing out yet another caution.
With strategy now aligned across much of GTD, Grosjean pitted for fuel with the rest of the class and took advantage of the wave-by procedures. When the race went back to green, the #16 Mustang had surged into the top ten.
At the restart, Grosjean slotted into 11th and immediately went on the attack. On lap 99 he produced the car’s fastest lap of the race, a 1:48.900, the first sub-1:49 for the Mustang, and passed Simon Mann to break into the top ten. As the Florida sun began to dip toward the horizon, the team appeared to be building toward a strong night phase.
Then, just as momentum had fully swung in their favor, misfortune struck again: on lap 116, Grosjean guided the Mustang into pit lane outside of the scheduled window. The car was eventually taken behind the wall, where the team assessed damage sustained from earlier contacts.
The verdict was devastating; the issues could not be repaired at the circuit, and after only four hours of racing, the #16 Ford Mustang GT3 was retired from the Rolex 24.
It was a crushing blow for a team that had fought its way back from early adversity into the top ten of one of the most competitive GTD fields in IMSA.
For Sheena Monk, it was another ill-fated chapter with Daytona’s unforgiving nature. After a severely unlucky 2024 campaign and heartbreak at this very event in past years, the 2026 Rolex 24 once again denied her the chance to convert promising pace into a full-distance result. Yet her opening stint stood out as a clear positive: disciplined in traffic, increasingly fast, and marked by steady progress despite setbacks.
With encouraging pace among the bronzes, the focus now turns to redemption. The season continues at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 20-21, where Monk and the #16 squad will aim to finally turn the page and bring an end to their streak of misfortune.