Renger Van der Zande ended the sole night practice session for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona at the top of the time sheets, lapping his #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R prototype around the circuit in a time of 01:34.146.
The night session was critical for the entire field, as it was the only chance to get on track under the lights and cooler conditions. The 50°F (10°C) ambient temperatures seen tonight were representative of the conditions that will be present during the overnight hours during the race, and all the drivers were keen to turn as many laps as possible.
All teams bar the #55 Mazda Motorsports DPi team were able to put in at least 20 laps during the nearly two-hour-long session, and the lone Mazda prototype entry will have to start the race from the front row without turning a lap under the moonlight.
Van der Zande claimed the fastest lap of the session early on, and held that position throughout the rest of the night. Close behind were Ricky Taylor in the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 DPi and Felipe Nasr in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, with each putting in fast laps near the end of the session.
This was the second practice session in which the #01 claimed the top spot on the timesheets, and was the first time Cadillac put all four of their entries in the top five, giving a hint as to their expected performance this weekend.
Despite the drastically different track conditions, familiar faces found their way to the front in LMP2. The #52 PR1 Mathaisen Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson continued to dominate at the top of the class for the third straight practice session, with Mikkel Jensen setting a time of 01:36.033.
Matthieu Vaxiviere finished the night in second place in the #8 Tower Motorsport machine, and Robert Kubica put in the third fastest time in his #20 High Class Racing entry. The top three LMP2 teams of the night session will start in the top three positions for the race on Saturday, when they hope their good form will continue.
The new LMP3 entries were firmly mixed up with the GTLM entries on the timesheets, but Jeroen Bleekemolen narrowly outpaced the GT cars by putting in a time of 01:42.492 in his #91 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 VK LMP3 entry.
Nick Tandy was less than a tenth of a second slower in his silver #4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, and was able to claim the top spot in GTLM ahead of Antonio Garcia in the #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. The performance put Chevrolet in the top two GTLM spots for the session, matching their strong qualifying effort.
GTD was headed up by Marco Mapelli in the #111 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo with a time of 01:45.593 set at the end of the session. Aaron Telitz narrowly finished second in class in his #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 by setting a time a mere .003 seconds slower than the top time.
There is one final hour-long practice session midday Friday. After that, the next time the 49-car field hits the track will be for 24 straight hours.
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