Mazda leads opening Roar practice

Mazda came out of the blocks strongly in the opening session at the Roar Before the Rolex 24, leading the 10 DPis to participate in Friday’s first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice.

Oliver Jarvis posted a best lap of 1m35.989s in the No. 77 Mazda DPi, while Olivier Pla was third best in the No. 55 Mazda, with a 1m36.449s.

Results

Renger van der Zande holds the Prototype class record with a lap of 1m36.083s in qualifying for the 2018 Rolex 24, although Felipe Nasr was unofficially quicker in last year’s special Roar qualifying session, at 1m35.806 in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi.V-R.

Cadillacs took five of the top seven places, led by Jordan Taylor’s 1m36.407s in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R. Felipe Nasr was fourth in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering entry, at 1m36.781s, followed by Action Express teammate Filipe Albuquerque, with a 1m36.872s in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac.

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Ricky Taylor was the faster of the two Team Penske Acura DPis with a 1m37.825s in the No. 7 entry. The No. 54 CORE autosport Nissan did not participate in the session.

Gabriel Aubry led the two competitors to practice in the LMP2 class, with a lap of 1m40.694s in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiesen Motorsports Oreca Gibson.

Porsches ran 1-2 in the nine-car GTLM class. Patrick Pilet was fastest in the No. 911 Porsche 911RSR, at 1m44.866, followed by teammate Earl Bamber, at 1m45.028s in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR.

In GT Daytona, Jeroen Bleekemolen was quickest of the 20 cars in the No. 33 Wynn’s Mercedes-AMG GT3, with a lap of 1m47.188s.

The lone incident saw Andrew Davis spinning in the Chicane and impacting the tire barrier on his second lap in the No. 19 Audi, with the Moorespeed team spending the remainder of the session repairing right-rear damage.