Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian led a cold, cloudy first practice at Daytona International Speedway, setting the benchmark before this afternoon’s Qualifying sessions for the 63rd annual Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Two-time Rolex 24 winner Tom Blomqvist set the quickest time in GTP aboard his blue and white #60 Acura ARX-06 at 1:34.576. After a mid-session red flag, he was joined by the #93 Acura of Nick Yelloly, who set a 1:34.752 to move into second place.
With the Acuras in first and second, the two BMW M Team RLL cars were third and fourth: Dries Vanthoor (1:34.867) shot up to third in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 near the end of today’s 90-minute practice, followed by Sheldon van der Linde in the #25 BMW.
Then it was reigning Daytona winner and IMSA GTP Champion Felipe Nasr in fifth aboard the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Jack Aitken in the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R was sixth-fastest and best of the Cadillacs.
Midway into the session, Tristan Vautier in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 stopped at turn one with a flat right-front tyre, bringing out a red flag. Per IMSA Sporting Regulations, the #5 Porsche has been penalized with the loss of its fastest lap in Qualifying later today (this penalty was later rescinded after IMSA Race Control deemed the incident to not be at the fault of the driver).
In LMP2, Mikkel Jensen laid down the gauntlet early in the #11 TDS Racing ORECA 07 with a best time of 1:37.986.
His fellow Dane, Malthe Jakobsen, was second-fastest in class in the #04 CrowdStrike by APR entry, while Rasmus Lindh of Sweden made a late jump into the top three in the #22 United Autosports USA car.
Pfaff Motorsports’ new #9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 has continued to show strong pace in GTD PRO. Andrea Caldarelli, the fastest man in class during the Roar Before The 24, backed that up with a 1:47.539 lap to lead the category by less than six hundredths of a second.
The Ford Multimatic Motorsports cars weren’t far off either: Mike Rockenfeller was second-quickest in the #64 Ford Mustang GT3 (1:47.597), and Frederic Vervisch was fourth-fastest in the #65 Mustang.
Between them was Madison Snow in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, in third.
And in GTD, Franck Perera went to the top late to lead a Lamborghini 1-2 in class for Forte Racing. Perera’s 1:47.321 in the #78 Forte Lamborghini led Trent Hindman’s best in the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Huracan by almost four-tenths.
Behind them was Harry Tincknell in the new #66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3, in third.
Qualifying for the Rolex 24 At Daytona starts today at 2:10 PM EST.
Images © Jack Webster
