MSR Acura leads opening Rolex 24 practice

Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian led a cold, cloudy first practice at Daytona International Speedway, setting the benchmark before this afternoon's qualifying sessions for the 63rd annual Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Two-time Rolex 24 winner Tom Blomqvist set the quickest time in GTP aboard his blue and white No. 60 Acura ARX-06 at 1m34.576s. And after a mid-session red flag, he was joined by the No. 93 Acura of Nick Yelloly, who set a 1m34.752s to move into second place.

With the Acuras in first and second, the two BMW M Team RLL cars were third and fourth: Dries Vanthoor (1m34.867s) shot up to third in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 near the end of today's 90-minute practice, followed by Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 25 BMW.

Then it was reigning Daytona winner and IMSA GTP champion Felipe Nasr in fifth aboard the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R was sixth fastest and best of the Cadillacs.

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Midway into the session, Tristan Vautier in the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 stopped at turn one with a flat right-front tire, bringing out a red flag. Per IMSA sporting regulations, the No. 5 Porsche will be penalized with the loss of its fastest lap in qualifying later today.

In LMP2, Mikkel Jensen laid down the gauntlet early in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA 07 with a best time of 1m37.986s. His fellow Dane, Malthe Jakobsen, was second fastest in class in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR entry, while Rasmus Lindh of Sweden made a late jump into the top three in the No. 22 United Autosports USA car.

Pfaff Motorsports' new No. 9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 has continued to show strong pace in GTD PRO. Andrea Caldarelli, the fastest man in class during the Roar Before The 24, backed that up with a 1m47.539 lap to lead the category by less than six-hundreths of a second.

The Ford Multimatic Motorsports cars weren't far off either: Mike Rockenfeller was second quickest in the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 (1m47.597s), and Frederic Vervisch was fourth fastest in the No. 65 Mustang. Between them was Madison Snow in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, in third.

In GTD, Franck Perera went to the top late to lead a Lamborghini 1-2 in class for Forte Racing. Perera's 1m47.321s in the No. 78 Forte Lamborghini led Trent Hindman's best in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Huracan by almost four tenths. Behind them was Harry Tincknell in the new No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3, in third.

Qualifying for the Rolex 24 At Daytona starts today at 2:10pm ET, airing on Peacock in the United States, and in most other countries on IMSA.TV and the official IMSA YouTube channel.

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