Bomarito puts Mazda on top in second Rolex practice

Jonathan Bomarito jumped to the top of the charts in the closing minutes of Thursday’s second practice session for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the last session before qualifying.

Bomarito turned a fast lap of 1m34.672s in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest DPi, well off teammate Oliver Jarvis’ fast lap of 1m33.398s turned in at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test earlier in the month.

Results

The gloves come off later this afternoon in qualifying, when P.J. Jones’ 26-year-old official track mark of 1m33.875s will be on the line.

Defending overall race winner Filipe Albuquerque was second in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R with a 1m35.383s, followed by Colin Braun in the No. 54 Nissan DPi (1m35.538s), and Ricky Taylor in the No. 7 Team Penske Acura DPi at 1m35.539s.

Unlike the morning practice, which ran on a drying track, it was sunny and 69 degrees for the second session.

James Allen paced LMP2 in the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA Gibson at 1m37.255s; Nick Tandy was quickest in GTLM with a 1m43.475s in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR; and Daniel Serra led GTD in the No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3m at 1m45.936s.

All 47 entries participated in the 55-minute session, after only 42 cars ran in morning practice.

NEXT UP: Qualifying gets underway at 3:35 p.m. ET with a 15-minute session for the GTD competitors (limited to Silver or Bronze drivers). GTLM qualifying begins at 4 p.m., followed by DPi and LMP2 at 4:25 p.m.

Thursday activities will conclude with a 90-minute night practice for all classes, beginning at 7 p.m. ET.

The lone Friday on-track activity for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be a one-hour final practice, beginning at 10 a.m. ET.