Session 4 of the Roar Before the 24 tests is the prerogative of the Porsches on this second day of testing that the protagonists of the IMSA SportsCar Championship undertake to prepare for the 24h of Daytona next week.
Only 60' available before the next 120' at night, but really lively and with several changes of leadership at the top of all four categories.
First of all, the 963 LMDhs in the GTP Class are the ones who dominate, with the private cars going faster than the official pair, to be precise; About ten minutes from the end, Phil Hanson put the #85 of JDC-Miller Motorsports in front in 1'35″216, overtaking the #5 of Proton Competition which Neel Jani had put in the lead shortly before in a nice clash response with the BMW driven by Connor De Phillippi.
The Team RLL standard-bearer had managed to equal the same time as the Swiss at the wheel of the M Hybrid V8 #25, but Hanson beat them by 0″113 to take the record.
Then in the Top5 there are the #01 Cadillacs of Chip Ganassi Racing and #31 of Action Express Racing, both a couple of tenths behind the leader, with the second BMW branded #24 behind them.
The Acuras #10 and #40 of WTR Andretti take seventh and ninth place at a wider distance, alternating with the Porsches #7 and #6 of Team Penske.
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
#2 United Autosports ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Ben Keating, Nico Pino, Ben Hanley, Patricio O'Ward
In the LMP2 Class, the Oreca poker is led by the legendary Ben Keating with the #2 of United Autosports in 1'39″047, scoring a double for the British team, preceding the #22 of his teammate Paul Di Resta by just 0″047.
Third time for the #18 of Era Motorsports, 2 tenths behind the American, fourth is the #11 of TDS Racing, behind which the Ligier #33 of Sean Creech Motorsports goes up.
The #04 of APR finishes in sixth position, half a second is taken by the #74 of Riley who is seventh, as well as the #88 of AF Corse who managed to jump to the front in Session 3.
Top10 which also includes the #99 of AO Racing and the #52 of Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen, trailing by 1″, finally followed by the #81 of DragonSpeed, the #20 of MDK by High Class Racing and the #8 of Tower.
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
#86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R: Kerong Li, Anders Fjordbach, Larry ten Voorde, Klaus Bachler, #20 MDK by High Class Racing ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Dennis Andersen, Seth Lucas, Laurents Hoerr, Scott Huffaker
The Porsches score the hat-trick among the GT3s and it is all the 911-992s of the GTD class that stand out. 1'45″799 is the time that Klaus Bachler achieved with the #86 of MDK Motorsports, followed at 0″191 by the #92 of Kellymoss with Riley, which has just 9 thousandths of an advantage over the #120 of Wright Motorsports.
The #55 Ford Mustang of Proton Competition is fourth at 0″3, followed by the #21 Ferraris of AF Corse and the #023 of Triarsi Competizione, in the top positions of the ranking for the first time.
The #44 Aston Martin of Magnus Racing climbs to seventh place, keeping behind the #45 Lamborghini of WTR Andretti, the #47 Ferrari of Cetilar Racing and the #13 Corvette of AWA.
The best car in the GTD PRO Class is the Aston Martin #23 of Heart Of Racing thanks to 'Super' Mario Farnbacher who lapped in 1'46″066, beating the Mustangs #64 and #65 of Multimatic by just a few tenths.
Fourth time for the Ferrari #62 of Risi Competizione which has the Porsche 'Rexy' #77 of AO Racing in its wake.
The best of Iron Lynx's Lamborghinis this time is #19, sixth in the group, followed by Vasser Sullivan's #14 Lexus and Pfaff's #9 McLaren, with the #4 Corvette and Paul Miller Racing's #1 BMW completing the field. Top10.
The fifth and final session of the day will start at 0:30 Italian time, lasting 120'.
#IMSA #DaytonaRoar #Session #Porsches #fun
