Porsche Dominates at Roar Before The 24
Daytona, FL — In a commanding display, Porsche Penske Motorsport secured a 1-2 finish in the first test session of the Roar Before The 24 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday. Under sunny conditions, Laurens Vanthoor clocked the fastest time in the #6 Porsche 963, achieving a lap of 1:36.549, while teammate Laurin Heinrich followed closely in the #7 with a time of 1:36.968.
Cadillac’s Filipe Albuquerque clinched third in the #10 V-Series.R with a time of 1:37.021, ahead of Jordan Taylor and Frederik Vesti in Cadillac’s compatible models. Acura’s Tom Blomqvist pushed the ARX-06 to sixth with a promising lap, though the sister #93 MSR Acura faced significant issues, with Nick Yelloly experiencing a left-rear brake failure, limiting the car to just five laps.
Ross Gunn managed to extract the seventh-fastest time in the troubled #23 Aston Martin, despite the vehicle suffering multiple stoppages throughout the session and needing an engine change.
LMP2 and GTD Class Results
In LMP2, Mathias Beche led the session in the #11 ORECA 07-Gibson with a best lap of 1:40.159. He was followed by Hunter McElrea and Jonny Edgar in the #2 and #99 ORECA, respectively. However, technical violations forced Tower Motorsports, Era Motorsport, and Pratt Miller Motorsports to spend an additional hour in the pits, disrupting their testing schedules.
The GTD PRO class was led by two-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion Will Power in the #75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, who recorded a best time of 1:47.612. Maxime Martin’s #48 Winward Racing entry was second, and Sandy Mitchell in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini secured third.
Meanwhile, Felipe Fraga’s impressive run in the #16 Myers-Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 Evo earned him the fastest time in the GTD class with a lap of 1:47.453, followed by Indy Dontje and Jake Walker.
Upcoming Sessions
The next test session is scheduled to begin at 3:10 PM ET, following the first VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race.
Images © IMSA
