IMSA: News from day 2 of Roar Before The Daytona 24 testing
Day 2 of IMSA’s Roar Before The Daytona 24 test is in the books. It featured the first race of the season in the new IMSA Prototype Challenge class.
The second day of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship testing from Daytona International Speedway featured a continued level of competitive testing between the classes as well as the first race of the year for the IMSA Prototype Challenge class, which serves as one of the support series to the main Prototype and GT classes.
The IMSA Prototype Challenge series kicked off a three-hour endurance race running on the same circuit that the WeatherTech series will use for its 24-hour endurance race, which is scheduled to begin on Thursday, January 24. The series has seen significant growth in team entries with the continued use of the LMP3 platform, which is recognized by IMSA as well as by the WEC/ACO.
The #51 Ligier JS P2 of Garett Grist and Rob Hodes qualified on pole, but it was the #4 Ligier JS P2 of Neil Alberico and Leo Lamelas that started the race in 15th place after troubles in qualifying and then worked through the field to end up winning the inaugural race of the IMSA Prototype season.
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The WeatherTech Sportscar groups practiced into the night as teams sought to log data and get acclimated with how the cars will find the cold temperatures on the high banks of the Daytona circuit.
Mazda Team Joest topped the time charts for day two of testing with Jonathan Bomarito setting the fastest time of 1:34.533 in his #55 RT-24P. Sister car to the #55, the #77 was not far out of the limelight with Oliver Jarvis setting a time of 1:34.977. Pipo Derani rounded out the top three in his #31 Wheelen Engineering Cadillac with a time of 1:35.179. Mazda Team Joest are looking to continue their show of pace after making a sweep of personnel changes, which included new race engineers for both of the team’s cars.
The now separated LMP2 class featured the #52 Oreca of Gabriel Aubry leading the class with a time of 1:36.990 followed by the #81 Oreca of Ben Hanley with a time of 1:37.575. Former Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado rounded out the top three in his #18 Oreca with a time of 1:38.423.
The GTLM field enters the Daytona test carrying its reputation as one of the most competitive classes in motorsports. Nick Tandy worked his #911 Porsche around the high banks to set a fastest time of 1:43.402. Earl Bamber was not far behind in the #912 Porsche with a time of 1:43.524. Rounding out the top three in the GTLM field was Sebastien Bourdais in his #66 Ford GT with a time of 1:43.71.
The GTD class saw an equally close between Ferrari and Mercedes, with the former locking out the first two positions. Victor Franzoni took top honors in his #13 Ferrari 488 with a time of 1:45.842. Daniel Serra was close behind in his #51 Ferrari 488 with a time of 1:45.954. Max Buhk rounded out the top three in his #71 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with a time of 1:46.001.
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IMSA teams will have one final day of testing on Sunday, January 6 before the full 24-hour endurance race begins on Thursday, January 24. Live race coverage of the 24 Hours of Daytona will be shown on NBC Sports Network at 2:00 p.m. ET as well as on IMSA.TV and the IMSA app.