Daytona 24h Roar: Porsche beats BMW by 0.035s in opening IMSA test session

Porsche’s Nick Tandy set the pace in the opening test session of the Roar Before the Rolex 24, the annual precursor to next weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours.

Tandy lapped the 3.56-mile road course in 1m35.617s in his GTP class, Penske-run 963 in pleasant and warm track conditions.

Last year’s pole time, set by Tom Blomqvist in Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura, was 1m34.031s.

Tandy was quick out of the blocks, setting his quickest lap in the factory-entered hybrid prototype in the early minutes of the session. His benchmark only came under attack in the closing moments when Augusto Farfus lapped his RLL-run BMW M Hybrid V8 in 1m35.652s, 0.035s slower.

The sister BMW of Nick Yelloly was third fastest, just over a tenth off the pace.

IndyCar champion Alex Palou was an impressive fourth in Chip Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac V-Series.R, just under a quarter of a second away from the fastest time. Jack Aitken was two tenths further back in the Action Express Racing Caddy.

Keeping the theme of quick IndyCar stars, Colton Herta outpaced Ricky Taylor to be the quickest Acura, lapping his Wayne Taylor-run ARX-06 within half a second of Tandy, with Taylor Jr a further tenth off.

Felipe Nasr (Penske Porsche) and Richard Westbrook (JDC-Miller Porsche) were eighth and ninth respectively. In total, 58 cars took part in the session, with the Proton Competition Porsche 963 only running in the closing minutes in Neel Jani’s hands and was classified 23^rd overall.

Source: Autosport