Proton Competition’s #5 Porsche 963 set the fastest time in this afternoon’s rain-soaked Roar Session 6 this afternoon, which got underway at midday rather than 09:45 due to heavy rain, thunder and lightning trackside.
Neel Jani set the best time, a 1:45.433, to go four-tenths up on the other privately entered GTP car in the field, the #85 963 from JDC-Miller that took second. Gianmaria Bruni was the fastest driver in the ‘Banana Boat’ – which completed just eight laps, the fewest in the class. The Italian’s hot lap was a 1:45.879.
While the fastest lap times were nowhere close to the best from the dry running, the session – which was hit by multiple rain showers – did hand the teams a chance to familiarise themselves with the circuit in wet conditions for the first time.
“For us, we decided to drive because we haven’t had any experience in Daytona in the wet with the car,” said Jani. “So we tried it out to see how the tyres develop and gather data. In the beginning, there were dry patches but after that, it got worse. It was good to learn.
“For us, laps are laps, but next week it looks like it could be wet for qualifying day, so it could be useful.
“I think Turn 1 is definitely a tricky one in the wet, as if you cross the rubbered line it gets very slippery. That’s why you saw a lot of cars locking up under braking.”
The #31 Whelen Cadillac ended up third after a 1:46.240 tour from Jack Aitken. The car did hit minor trouble during the hour when Felipe Drugovich was spotted by the TV cameras limping back to pit road with a right-rear puncture.
The #25 RLL BMW would end up fourth with the #60 Meyer Shank Acura fifth.
In LMP2, despite both its cars suffering spins, United Autosports USA managed to place its two ORECAs in the top three on the timing screens. Peugeot Hypercar driver Paul Di Resta put the #22 at the top of the pile with a 1:49.870 – the only time under 1:50 in the session. The #2 ended up third.
The #11 TDS Racing ORECA split the two, with a 1:50.440 from Mikkel Jensen.
Inception Racing’s #70 Ferrari set the pace in GTD with a 1:57.033 from Ollie Millroy. Franck Perera placed Forte’s Lamborghini second. Further down the order the fastest GTD Pro car – the #3 Corvette – would end up sixth in the combined ranking.
There were multiple red flag stoppages in the session, including one for the #5 Proton Porsche spinning at pit-in, the #22 United ORECA looping around at Turn 1 and one for heavy rain that brought the session to a premature end with three and a half minutes on the clock.
There’s one more session to run, we are currently waiting on news of when it will get underway due to the weather delays.
Images courtesy of Andrew Lofthouse & Porsche
