The trio of Cadillac V-LMDh prototypes began to show top form during Thursday’s second practice for the 61st annual Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
Leading the way was Richard Westbrook, driving the blue and black #02 Cadillac Racing entry run by Chip Ganassi Racing. In the first half hour of the session, Westbrook had the top time with a 1’35.185, the fastest time of the day thus far.
There was a flurry of fast laps during the final minutes of the session that shuffled the final order in the GTP class. Louis Deletraz went second-fastest in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06, setting a 1’35.423 – just four-thousandths of a second up on two-time overall winner Renger van der Zande in the #01 Cadillac Racing entry.
2016 overall winner Pipo Derani went fourth-quickest in the Action Express-run #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac. He was followed by the two Porsche Penske Motorsports 963s – the #7 of Felipe Nasr leapt ahead of the #6 of Mathieu Jaminet late in the session.
Colin Braun in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura was seventh-quickest, then Nick Yelloly in the #25 BMW Team RLL M Hybrid V8, in eighth, put the top eight runners within 0.726 seconds. The lone exception was the #24 BMW, limited to just nine laps as they tried to diagnose a faulty onboard fire extinguisher.
In this one-hour and 45-minute practice, the LMP2, LMP3, and GTD classes had the track to themselves for the first 15 minutes. The session ended with 15 minutes of exclusive running for the all-pro GTP and GTD Pro classes. Just like the first practice this morning, there was a rash of red flags.
Half an hour into the session, the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Ligier JS P320 of Till Bechtolsheimer had a couple of small incidents, including one where he went off at speedway turn two, and couldn’t get his car restarted. This brought out the first brief red flag of the session.
But just seven minutes after the session resumed, Francesco Pizzi in the #55 Proton Competition Oreca 07 lost it off the exit kerbs at the Le Mans Chicane, spun out, and slammed left-side first into the SAFER barrier near speedway turn three, almost in the same spot where Fred Poordad crashed this same car during qualifying on Sunday.
Pizzi was able to climb out of his heavily damaged car, needing only light assistance from the AMR Safety Team on the scene, and was later evaluated and released from the infield care centre. (Update – The #55 car tub is OK but the car is almost certain not to make the night session this evening, that’s potentially a major problem as Pizzi and Fred Poordad both need to complete night laps!)
Shortly after that resumption, Kerong Li lost it entering the Le Mans Chicane in the #42 NTE Sport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 and spun into the tyre barriers on the left. Li limped his car, with its heavily damaged right-rear suspension, back to the pits. Co-driver Alessio Deledda spun earlier in the session.
Orey Fidani stopped in the run-off to bring out a third red flag, but he was able to restart his #13 AWA Duquiene D08 as soon as the red was shown, allowing the session to restart quickly.
And with 15 minutes left, the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier suffered a mechanical failure, pouring white smoke and fluid from behind it. Nolan Siegel brought the car safely to a stop at turn six, and the session was resumed just before 5:00 PM local time, then extended by one minute for the remaining GTD Pro and GTP cars.
The #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca was fastest in LMP2. Nicolas Lapierre was quickest with a time of 1’38.615, after co-driver Paul-Loup Chatin paced the first session.
Job van Uitert was second-fastest in class aboard the #35 TDS Racing Oreca, followed by Oliver Rasmussen, piloting the #18 ERA Motorsport Oreca, in third.
Felipe Fraga was quickest for the second straight session in LMP3, his time of 1’42.491 was an improvement of two-tenths over his best time from the first practice.
New Corvette Racing recruit Nico Varrone was second-fastest in the black and green #17 AWA Duquiene, leading teammate Matt Bell in the aforementioned #13 AWA car.
Yet again, the fastest driver across both GTD classes was from the Pro-Am category, and yet again it was a Mercedes-AMG GT3. This time, it was Canadian Mikaël Grenier who led the way in the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes.
Grenier’s best time of 1’46.282 was enough to best the GTD Pro class leader, another Mercedes, the #79 WeatherTech Racing car driven by Andorra’s number one Jules Gounon.
In GTD, the second-quickest time belonged to the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 driven by 2020 winner Ryan Briscoe, and with Kenny Habul third in his #75 SunEnergy1 Motorsports Mercedes, it gave the Silver Arrows three cars in the top four in GTD overall.
The top three in GTD pro was completed by the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Alex Riberas, followed by the #3 Corvette Racing C8.R of Jordan Taylor.
