Cadillac sets a string of records and puts itself behind all its rivals also in Free Practice 4 of the 24th of Daytona, which will officially kick off the 2024 season of the IMSA SportsCar Championship on Saturday.
These last 60' of activities on the track took place once again in the heat (30°C), but were interrupted approximately 15' from the end due to an off-track exit at turn 2 by Lance Willsey, who was betrayed by the track dirty off course, he skidded and hit the wall with the Ligier #33 of Sean Creech Motorsports.
The red flag was displayed and then the restart was with 9' on the clock, but at that moment the V-Series.R #31 of Action Express Racing had already taken the overall lead and in the GTP Class with Jack Aitken in 1'35″983 , without anyone subsequently managing to beat the Briton.
Second place goes to the BMW #25 of Team RLL at +0″239, while the third-placed Cadillac #01 of Chip Ganassi Racing takes almost half a second.
All four Porsches entered in the event follow the yellow 'Caddy', with the private 963 #85 of JDC-Miller Motorsports fourth and the only one to remain within a second of the leader, keeping behind the #5 of Proton Competition and the Team Penske officials #6 and #7.
At the bottom of the category rankings remain the Acura #40 and #10 of WTR Andretti, and the BMW #24 of RLL (with just a few laps under its belt) with abysmal delays, but still not very indicative given that everyone tried to make room for each pilot of the crew checking that everything was in order, rather than trying to attack the record.
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
#31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken, Tom Blomqvist
In the LMP2 Class, Mikkel Jensen gave the top spot to the Oreca #11 of TDS Racing in 1'39″078, edging out the #88 of AF Corse and the #18 of Era Motorsport by over 7 tenths.
Fourth fastest time for the APR #04 which will be in Pole Position tomorrow, the 'Spike' #99 of AO Racing is also in the Top5, while the #8 of Tower in sixth is 1″1 behind.
The Riley #74 finishes seventh, putting behind the #2 of United Autosports and the #52 of Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen, which together with the aforementioned Ligier complete the Top10; here we will see if the SCM team will be able to repair the damage in time for the race.
Further away were United #22 and DragonSpeed #81, no laps completed for MDK by High Class Racing #20, which preferred to only make exit and return passages.
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
#11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen, Hunter McElrea, Charles Milesi
Among the GT3s, a GTD Class Porsche once again takes the lead: the best time goes to Thomas Preining in 1'47″072 with the 911 #43 of Andretti Motorsports, while Matteo Cairoli takes second place overall and tops the GTD Iron Lynx's Lamborghini #60 PRO in 1'47″239.
Moving forward with the GTDs, the BMW #96 of Turner Motorsport did well, second at +0″386, just ahead of the Ferrari #023 of Triarsi Competizioni and the Ford Mustang #55 of Proton Competition, with the Lamborghini #83 of Iron Dames finished in the Top5 with 0″7 behind.
Behind the 'pink' Huracan we have the #70 McLaren of Inception Racing and the #120 Wright Motorsports and #86 MDK Motorsports Porsches, with the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari and the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes finishing the list of the first 10, enclosed in the space of 1″ full.
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
#43 Andretti Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R: Jarett Andretti, Gabby Chaves, Scott Hargrove, Thomas Preining
In GTD PRO, second place goes to the Ferrari #62 of Risi Competizione, very close to the yellow Lambo, further behind are the Mercedes #75 of Sun Energy 1 and the Ford Mustangs of Multimatic, all over half a second.
The #3 Corvette gets the sixth time, the #4 the eighth and among the Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06s we find the Lamborghini #19 of Iron Lynx, the first of the lot to be more than a second behind its twin.
The McLaren #9 of Pfaff Motorsports and the Porsche-'Rexy' #77 of AO Racing close the Top10 with wide distances, especially the 911 which did not try to achieve any significant time.
The AWA Corvettes and the Heart Of Racing Aston Martins did not run, intent on saving sets of tires in view of the race, a choice also adopted by the BMW #1 of Paul Miller Racing and the Lexus #14 of VasserSullivan, both seen for a few short round, but without valid times.
The curtain falls on the tests and now the final preparations will take place in the pits for the 62nd edition of the 24h of Daytona, with the start scheduled for 1.40pm on Saturday, 7.40pm in Italy.
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