Acura’s domination of the top of the time sheets at this weekend’s IMSA Sanctioned Test came to an end this afternoon, as JDC-Miller Motorsports and Nico Pino led the way in Session 4.
Pino set a 1:36.015 aboard the #85 Porsche 963, which is running here in 2025-spec, with three of the four-and-a-half hours of track time complete.
This displaced Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s Nick Yelloly from the top spot by 0.282 seconds. It was another productive session by Yelloly’s #93 Acura ARX-06 though, as it completed a session-leading 114 laps of the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway Road Course.
Felipe Nasr was third fastest in the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry, 0.098 seconds further back, with Kevin Magnussen fourth in the #24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8.
The #60 MSR Acura was fifth in the hands of Tom Blomqvist, ahead of the #25 WRT BMW and #6 Penske Porsche, with under two tenths separating second through to seventh.
The fastest of the Cadillac V-Series.Rs was the #31 Cadillac Whelen entry of Earl Bamber, in eighth overall, whilst the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie again rounded out the 11-car GTP field.
In LMP2, Pietro Fittipaldi put Pratt Miller Motorsports’ #73 ORECA 07 – Gibson to the top, after reeling off a succession of quick lap times at the beginning of the final hour, the best of them being a 1:39.177.
This surpassed Malthe Jakobsen’s 1:39.468 from the opening hour aboard the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, with the Dane holding on to second ahead of the Inter Europol Competition, Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen and Tower Motorsports entries.
Magnus Racing again led the GT runners, with Nicki Thiim setting a 1:47.662 in the GTD-entered #44 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo.
Thiim swapped the top spot in GTD with the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on multiple occasions, with Russell Ward’s 1:47.727 the best effort from the two-time GTD championship-winning machine.
The #28 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) was third in GTD, ahead of the #21 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo and #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche.
And in GTD PRO, it was a Mercedes-AMG 1-2, with the #48 Winward Racing entry again heading the #75 75 Express AMG.
Jason Hart set the leading car’s best time, a 1:47.813, after besting co-driver Maxime Martin’s earlier effort. Mikaël Grenier was 0.103 seconds slower in the 75 Express entry.
Jack Hawksworth was third in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, ahead of the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Dan Harper, and the #65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 Evo of Christopher Mies.
The session was interrupted by a single Red Flag, after a wheel came loose on AO Racing’s ‘Spike the Dragon’ #99 ORECA on an out lap in the penultimate hour.
As was the case yesterday, cars were slow to get going for the afternoon running, with multiple teams waiting over an hour before commencing on-track activity. The last of them to do so, over two hours in, was Pfaff Motorsports with its #9 Lamborghini Temerario GT3.
After taking its time with a big setup change, the Lamborghini went on to complete 35 laps, building on the 68 tours it completed this morning.
The second day of running at this weekend’s IMSA Sanctioned Test concludes with a two-hour night session, which begins at 19:00 ET.
Images © Brandon Badraoui / IMSA / Lumen
