Proton Competition’s Neel Jani set the pace in the sixth Roar Before the 24 session, the preparation event for next weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours.
Proton Competition runs a customer Porsche 963 chassis in the GTP class of the IMSA Sportscar Championship. Jani set a time of 1:45.433 on a wet track, almost half a second faster than anyone else in the #5 Proton Porsche 963.
In fact, it was a Porsche customer 1-2, as the German manufacturer’s other customer team, JDC Miller Motorsports, was second with Gianmaria Bruni at the wheel, onboard the #85 JDC Miller machine.
Jack Aitken, in the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R, run by Action Express with Cadillac factory support, was third, 0.807 off Jani.
Fourth was Sheldon van der Linde in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, while Colin Braun was fifth in the #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06.
The session had been considerably delayed by weather and lightning warnings in the area, but managed to get under day at midday, albeit on a very wet track. This meant many cars did not leave the pits or set competitive times, including the factory GTP Porsches and one of the GTP Acuras.
In LMP2, Paul Di Resta was fastest, setting a 1:49.870 onboard the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson. The Scot is a Peugeot factory driver in the FIA World Endurance Championship; he was followed in the Roar session by his Peugeot WEC teammate, Mikkel Jensen, in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca at Daytona. The Dane was well over half a second slower than Di Resta.
Third in class went to Ben Hanley, in the sister #2 United Autosports machine, 0.919 off his United Autosports teammate.
GTD faster than GTD Pro
Corvette’s Alexander Sims set a 1:57.672 to go quickest in GTD Pro, in the #3 Corvette Z06 GT3R. He was 0.276 faster than #69 GetSpeed Mercedes AMG-GT3’s Fabian Schiller in second, followed by Sims’ Corvette teammate, Nicky Catsburg, in third, onboard the #4 Corvette. Catsburg was, however, over six tenths slower than Sims on the wet track.
Finally, in GTD, Ollie Millroy took the honour of being fastest, with a 1:57.033, behind the wheel of the #70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. This was considerably faster than Sims had managed in the Pro class; in fact, Sims’ laptime would have put him sixth in GTD.
Second in GTD was Franck Perera in the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, just over two tenths off Millroy. Third was #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3’s Philip Ellis, just 21 thousandths off Perera.
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