The 2026 Enduro Elite Championship began where the 2025 season ended: at historic Shannonville Motorsport Park, near Belleville, Ontario. The Canadian-based endurance series is scheduled to run over five weekends from April to September, with each event featuring four-hour races and a mixed grid of GT1, GT2 and GT3 cars. For DriveTeq, returning to Shannonville felt less like a fresh start and more like revisiting a crime scene. In the final race of 2025, Daniel Demaras had the No. 822 BMW running in the lead before a fuel pickup issue ended the charge and snatched victory away. New season, same track, same unfinished business.
The familiar DriveTeq crew was back in the paddock, led by team principals Rick and Gerry, with longtime mechanic Luca once again turning wrenches in the pits. Daniel was again sharing the No. 822 BMW 128i, better known as ‘Marilyn’, the pop-art race car inspired by Andy Warhol’s 1979 BMW Art Car, complete with a Marilyn Monroe portrait on the hood. Nearby sat the team’s sister car, No. 821 ‘Gina’, painted in tribute to Jeff Koons’ 2010 BMW Art Car. Many of last year’s rivals had also returned, ready to resume battle with Marilyn. Because apparently, endurance racers do not get hobbies. They just spend the winter plotting revenge.
The season started earlier than usual, and late April at Shannonville made sure everyone knew it. The cold spring air helped the engines run cool and kept the tires from getting greasy, but it also had drivers, crew members and assorted paddock creatures walking around in toques between sessions. Daniel was selected to start Saturday’s race, and the opening lap immediately delivered the usual endurance-racing cocktail of excitement, opportunity and mild terror. With the field bunched together for the rolling start, several drivers were tentative through the first corners while their tires came up to temperature and pressure. Marilyn, nimble and eager, slipped past quicker GT1 machinery and launched herself into the fight.
The early laps were not without drama. A green Porsche 911, one of the faster GT1 cars, came around Daniel’s outside and squeezed him through the corner, compromising his line and nearly sending the BMW into a spin. From the pit wall, it was a deeply unpleasant little moment, watching the car fishtail right, then left, then right again, before Daniel gathered it back up. A moment later, his voice came over the team radio with one perfectly deadpan word: “Unnecessary.” After that, he went back to work. Through a string of clean, decisive overtakes, Daniel pushed the No. 822 to the front of GT2, built a full-lap lead over the class field, lapped back markers, and even ran ahead of several GT1 cars. It was exactly the opening stint the team needed.
But endurance racing is not a time attack session with catering. No single driver wins alone, and no single stint tells the whole story. Once Daniel handed Marilyn over, the race changed. The next driver was managing a car he had not practiced in earlier that day, and the lap times reflected that challenge. The once-comfortable lead began to disappear, and the No. 822 eventually slipped to second place in GT2. As the laps clicked by and the clock wound down toward the 5:00 pm checkered flag, there was that familiar helplessness of watching your own race car circulate beyond your control. Daniel had done his job and put the car in position to win, but Shannonville had once again refused to hand over the ending everyone wanted. The team would need a new strategy for Sunday.