BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde topped the fourth session of IMSA’s Roar Before the 24, the practice event for next weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours.
The South African, in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, set a 1:36.196 to go quickest, 0.404 faster than his teammate Dries Vanthoor in the sister #24 car, completing a BMW 1-2.
This is the third successive session BMW have been fastest in, with Acura taking the top spot in the first session, the only non-BMW to do so.
Third and fourth were the two Porsches, Jordan Mathieu Jaminet in the #6 ahead of Nick Tandy in the #7. Both were quite a way off the BMWs; Jaminet was almost eight tenths off S. van der Linde, while Tandy was 0.940 off the pace.
Fifth was the #40 Cadillac V-Series.R, run by Wayne Taylor Racing, with Jordan Taylor at the wheel, over a second off the pace-setting South African.
In LMP2, Tom Dillmann was quickest in the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07-Gibson, with a 1:40.272. This was just seven thousandths of a second faster than Dane Cameron, onboard the dragon-liviered #99 AO Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, with Ben Hanley, behind the wheel of the #2 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson under a tenth off Dillmann.
In GTD Pro, Andrea Caldarelli was quickest in the #9 Pfaff Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, with the rapid Italian setting a 1:48.049. This was almost two seconds quicker than #3 Corvette Z06 GT3R’s Antonio Garcia, with Kelvin van der Linde third in class behind the wheel of the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3, 0.311 off Caldarelli.
Finally, in GTD, Michelle Gatting went fastest in the #83 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3R, setting a 1:48.173, which when combining the two GT classes puts her second. She was 0.061 faster than Mike Skeen in the #21 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, while Ayhancan Guven was third in the #1290 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R.
