The week of the 24 Hours of Daytona finally gets underway and activities begin again on the Florida circuit to prepare for the first seasonal round of the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship.
The sun is shining on the International Speedway and temperatures have risen to 30°C, making conditions decidedly different compared to seven days ago, when the Roar Before the 24 tests began.
The Cadillac begins to dictate the pace again thanks to the 1'36″012 achieved by Scott Dixon in the home stretch, improving the previous record set by Sébastien Bourdais in the early stages of the session with Chip Ganassi's V-Series.R #01 Racing.
The BMW #25 of Team RLL with Connor De Phillippi at the wheel took second place at the last lap, moving 0″127 behind the leader and overtaking the Porsche #6 of Team Penske, followed in turn by the other BMW with the #24.
The second official Porsche marked with the #7 is fifth at almost half a second, followed by the #31 Cadillac of Action Express Racing and the #40 Acura, for the moment the best of the WTR Andretti cars as the #10 finishes at the back of the group for 1″420, in a suffering that seems to continue due to the excessive weight imposed by the BoP, which remained the same as the Roar.
In the midst of the ARX-06s we find the private Porsches of JDC-Miller Motorsports #85 and Proton Competition #5, both under a second behind.
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
#04 CROWDSTRIKE Racing by APR ORECA LMP2-Gibson: George Kurtz, Colin Braun, Toby Sowery, Malthe Jakobsen
In the LMP2 Class, Toby Sowery gave the record to APR, lapping in 1'39″407 with the Oreca #04, with the 07-Gibsons dominating the scene in the category.
Second place goes to the #2 of United Autosports, 0.122 seconds slower, while half a second goes to the #11 of TDS Racing – which had some technical problems during the session – and the #18 of Era Motorsports, respectively third and fourth.
Top5 for Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen #52 with 0″7 behind the top, just ahead of United Autosports #22 and DragonSpeed #81.
The #88 of AF Corse is 1″ behind, eighth with the #8 of Tower Motorsports and the Oreca 'Spike' #99 of AO Racing behind, 1″3 from the top.
The Orecas of Riley #74 and MDK by High Class Racing #20 remain outside the Top10, separated by the Ligier #33 of Sean Creech Motorsports.
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
#66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3: Sheena Monk, Katherine Legge, Tatjana Calderon, Stevan McAleer
Continuing with the GT3s, there is a nice alternation between GTD and GTD PRO in the first 13 general places and the main one is taken by Katherine Legge with the Acura #66 of Gradient Racing in 1'46″585, reference time for the GTD Class and almost a couple of tenths faster than Jack Hawksworth, who with the #14 Lexus of Vasser Sullivan Racing is first in GTD PRO.
Continuing with this last mentioned category, the McLaren #9 of Pfaff Motorsports finishes second at +0″151, third at a couple of tenths and a half we have instead the Ferrari #62 of Risi Competizione, while just over four tenths accuse them the Mercedes #75 of Sun Energy 1 Racing and the Lamborghini #19 of Iron Lynx, which complete the Top5.
Half a second behind was the BMW #1 of Paul Miller Racing which placed sixth, followed by the Porsche-'Rexy' #77 of AO Racing, fresh from Pole Position for the race.
Eighth was the Aston Martin #23 of Heart Of Racing, in the top ten – within 0″945 – there are also the Ford Mustang #64 of Multimatic and the Lamborghini #60 of Iron Lynx.
Finally, the gap on the back of the #4 and #3 Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvettes and the #65 Mustang is over 1″.
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
#14 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3: Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, Kyle Kirkwood, Mike Conway
To complete the GTD discussion, the BMW #96 of Turner Motorsport is the first of Acura's pursuers with a 0″275 margin, placing itself behind the Ferraris #34 of Conquest Racing and #47 of Cetilar Racing, third and fifth respectively.
The 296 GT3s are divided by the Mercedes #57 of Winward Racing, not very brilliant during the Roar tests and now 0″599 from the record, while the sixth fastest time goes to the Porsche #92 of Kellymoss with Riley, rebuilt in recent days using a chassis of reserve after the accident suffered in last week's sessions.
The McLaren #70 of Inception Racing was seventh, ahead of the Lexus #12 of Vasser Sullivan Racing, the Mercedes #32 of Korthoff/Preston Motorsports and the Ferrari #023 of Triarsi Competizione, tenth at 0.8″ from first place.
The AWA Corvettes, Lamborghinis and Aston Martins are back, as are the Proton Competition Mustangs, but it is still early to draw conclusions.
The day now continues with Free Practice 2 at 8.10pm Italian time, while Free Practice 3 will take place at 00.35am.
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