Customer Porsche 963 on top of ROAR day 2
GTP
Both Customer Porsche 963 dominated Saturday afternoon’s #4 session test of ROAR Before ROLEX 24 by setting the fastest two laps of the session at Daytona International Speedway with Phil Hanson (#85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963) in 1:35.216 and Neel Jani (#5 Proton Competition Porsche 963) in 1:35.329.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024.
Since Phil Hanson with #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 beat Pipo Derani’s benchmark by a thousandth of a second, in 1:35.216, a customer Porsche is leading the GTP lap chart ahead of Sunday’s qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Daytona. Note that Richard Westbrook, with the same car, was second fastest in Session 3 behind Derani in 1:35.398, which puts him in P5 in driver and class fastest lap chart of combined sessions.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024.
Neither Pipo Derani nor his co-drivers Jack Aitken and Tom Blomqvist were able to improve Pipo’s fastest lap that Derani drove during session #2 (1:35.217). Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing #31 Cadillac V-Series.R’s squad keeps P2 of combined sessions.
“It’s getting back into the rhythm,” Derani said “You’ve got to be on your toes. It was a good day, but still, you’ve got to keep digging. It’s great to be back. I think the three of us are running fairly similar and want the same thing from the car. We still have our program to go through, and we are ticking those boxes, and hopefully we’ll be as ready as we can for the race week.” Source: Cadillac Racing.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024. #25 BMW M Hybrid V8
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024.
Neel Jani, in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche 963, set exactly the same lap time (1:35.329) as Connor De Phillippi with the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, which puts the #5 Porsche 963 in P3 of the combined session and #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 in P4.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024.
Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R and Tom Blomqvist in the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac are respectively sixth and seventh of drivers and class fastest lap chart. This puts #01 Cadillac V-Series.R in P5 of the combined lap chart.
Sebastien Bourdais recorded a best lap of 1:35.488 in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R in the one-hour afternoon practice that will most closely resemble track and ambient conditions for the 15-minute qualifying: “We’re all just kind of chasing track conditions a bit and working to figure out what we might need. Today felt great with it being my first time back in the car in 2024. We’ll continue to work toward qualifying tomorrow, working through our programs, and getting everybody up to speed as we get ready for the big one, the Rolex 24 At Daytona.” Source: Cadillac Racing
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024. #6 Penske Porsche 963
Nick Tandy with #6 Penske Porsche 963 third best performance of day 1 in 1:35.617 puts the factory Porsche 963 in P6 of the combined sessions.
LMP2
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024.
During Saturday’s last session, Scott Huffaker set a lap of 1:38.270 which propelled the #20 MDK by High Class Racing Oreca 07 Gibson to the top of the LMP2 lap chart.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024.
Matthieu Vaxiviere is second in the LMP2 class in the #88 AF Corse with a lap time of 1:38.576 set during Saturday morning session #3.
GTD and GTD PRO
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024.
Eddie Cheever III in the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 set the fastest of the GTD times during the last session Saturday night in 1:45.739.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024.
Klaus Bachler with #86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) is second in the combined GTD class with a time of 1:45.799, set during Saturday afternoon’s #4 session.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona 2024.
Third in the combined GTD class, Corvette Racing factory driver Tommy Milner has the best time in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in the #4 Oshkosh/Mobil 1 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The 2016 Rolex 24 GTLM class-winner and lead development driver for the Z06 GT3.R set a best lap of 1:45.844 (Saturday morning’s session) in a tight and crowded field; 12 GTD PRO cars, 32 PRO drivers were within a second after Saturday’s five sessions.
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "Overall I'm pretty happy with how the Corvette Z06 GT3.R has been in both days of practice so far. Every time I've been in, it has felt very good and I'm happy with the balance. Realistically at this point, we're still trying some things to find some speed in a couple of the high-speed sections like the Bus Stop, so there is still work to do. All things considered, from where we were during testing in December to what things feel like now, we're very happy." Source: Corvette Racing
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