Reigning IMSA Champion Pipo Derani went fastest in his #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R in the second practice session of the Roar Before the 24 – a three-day warm-up event culminating in Qualifying for next weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours.
The Brazillian set a 1:35.217s laptime in the final 15 minutes of action, putting him 0.377s clear of second-placed Connor De Phillippi (who led for the majority of the session) in the #25 BMW Team RLL M Hybrid V8 entry and 0.504s clear of Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche 963.
After Nick Tandy topped the opening session in the #6 Porsche 963, the 59-strong IMSA circus sprung into life once again with a one hour and 45-minute session, with the first quarter of an hour reserved exclusively for LMP2 and GTD entrants and the final 15 minutes reserved for GTD Pro and GTP competitors.
A Red Flag was brought out 55 minutes into the action as American Michael Dinan spun in Sector 3 behind the wheel of the #8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 Oreca-07 Gibson entry – causing a brief delay to the action, otherwise, there were no stoppages throughout.
Behind the top three was the #10 WTR with Andretti Acura ARX, piloted by Filipe Albuquerque to claim the fourth fastest time (1:35.945s), ahead of fifth-placed Jesse Krohn in the #24 BMW (1:36.143s), which appeared to be encountering issues early on having posted just eight laps on the board in the first hour.
Alex Palou impressed in the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, posting three consecutive fastest laps in the early stages of the session and the Spaniard was the only member of the #01 crew driving this evening as he prepares for his first Daytona start since his debut in 2022.
Palou wound up sixth in the final classification with a best attempt of 1:36.160s, 0.943s off of the ultimate pace.
The fastest LMP2 runner was Christian Rasmussen in the #18 Era Motorsports Oreca 07-Gibson (1:39.674s) ahead of Nolan Siegel in the #33 Sean Creech Ligier (+0.253s).
Like they were in Friday’s opening session, the GTD Pro and GTD entries mixed it up in the standings.
It was a GTD Pro entry that came out on top, however – the #64 Ford Mustang GT3 to be precise, which posted a laptime of 1:46.494s thanks to Christopher Mies.
Second overall in the GTs and first in GTD was the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R effort driven by Jan Heylen (1:46.741s) – with third overall in GT going to the second-fastest GTD Pro entrant, namely James Calado in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 (1:46.760s).
The next session of the Roar Before the 24 gets underway at 11:15 Am local time on Saturday, January 20.
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