BMW M Team WRT leads Friday evening Roar session ahead of JDC-Miller Porsche

BMW M Team WRT closed the first day of the Roar Before The 24 at Daytona with the fastest time during the second of seven test sessions.

The first hour was interrupted by two incidents of note, the first of which was a big blow for the returning Intersport Racing team. Just 15 minutes into the session, Job van Uitert spun entering Turn 1 and hit the tire barrier. The Dutchman was okay, but the No. 37 ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2 was sidelined for the rest of the session after bringing out the first red flag.

About 15 minutes later, and only five minutes after the red flag was lifted for van Uitert’s crash, Nolan Siegel spun the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition ORECA at the Le Mans Chicane and stopped for several seconds, though he suffered no damage and the car was able to continue its test. Simultaneously, Esteban Masson in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 pulled off at the West Horseshoe with a mechanical issue.

Shortly before the second of those red flags, Sheldon van der Linde went to the top of the GTP leaderboard, setting a 1m36.742s in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8.

Moving up to second was the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963. After Nico Pino went second-fastest in Session 1, his co-driver Tijmen van der Helm did the same, setting a 1m36.880s, quicker than each of the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory cars.

That’s no disservice to new Porsche factory driver Laurin Heinrich, who was third-fastest in the No. 7 Penske Porsche (1m36.908s).

Heinrich finished ahead of the trio of Cadillac V-Series.Rs. In fourth was Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac, Filipe Albuquerque was fifth in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and teammate Jordan Taylor was sixth in the No. 40 WTR Cadillac.

Reigning Rolex 24 winner Laurens Vanthoor was seventh-fastest in the No. 6 Penske Porsche. Rounding out the GTP field in order were the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06, No. 25 WRT BMW, the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie and No. 93 MSR Acura.

Just 1.271 seconds covered all 11 GTP cars.

LMP2 specialist Ben Hanley put United Autosports USA’s No. 2 ORECA on top with a 1m39.136s.

It was a Fittipaldi who went second-fastest in the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA – this time it was Enzo Fittipaldi ahead of the No. 43 Inter Europol car of Tom Dillmann in third and the No. 343 of Siegel in fourth.

Reigning Australian Supercars Champion Chaz Mostert and the No. 75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO led GTD PRO. Mostert, himself a previous class winner of the Rolex 24, turned in a 1m47.625s in the blue Mercedes.

Behind him were the warring factions of Ford versus Corvette Racing – Christopher Mies was second-quickest in the No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 Evo and reigning GTD PRO Champion Alexander Sims was third in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Jack Hawksworth ran fourth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 after leading the class early on.

For the second time, the fastest GT lap belonged to a GTD car – for Session 2 it was the No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford. Corey Lewis set a 1m47.522s in the silver Ford, 0.2s off the best overall GT time of the day.

The No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 (Danny Formal), the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG (Russell Ward) and the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG (James Roe) completed the top four in class.

IMSA's Roar Before The 24 resumes Saturday with the first of three test sessions for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the first of which starts at 11:15 a.m. ET (local time).

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