Vanthoor's late flying lap puts Porsche Penske Motorsport on top in fifth Roar session

Laurens Vanthoor put Porsche Penske Motorsport on top to close out the second night of the Roar Before The 24 at Daytona International Speedway with a late flying lap that took the reigning Rolex 24 At Daytona winner to the top of the GTP leaderboard.

In preparation for the night-time racing to come next week during the 64th Rolex 24, fast laps weren’t the focus of the two-hour night session. But, of note, the 10 cars in GTP that recorded times were only separated by 0.343s.

With under 10 minutes left, Vanthoor set a 1m37.239s in his No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, jumping him ahead of Colton Herta’s best time of 1m37.342s in the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R. In third was Will Stevens in the No. 10 WTR Cadillac, who set a 1m37.493s, and Nico Pino was an impressive fourth in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche.

The alternating order of Cadillac and Porsche continued as Frederik Vesti went fifth-fastest in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac, and Laurin Heinrich went sixth in the No. 7 Penske Porsche. Dries Vanthoor led the BMW M Team WRT contingent in the No. 24, and Nick Yelloly in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 led his manufacturer in eighth. Only the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie didn’t post a time after spending most of the day in the garage undergoing a precautionary engine change.

Mikkel Jensen in the No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA 07-Gibson led LMP2 with a 1m39.770s. Nolan Siegel went second-fastest in the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition ORECA. The one-off Inter Europol entry finished ahead of the full-time No. 43 car, with António Félix da Costa setting its top time.

75 Express and star driver Will Power continued to lead the way in GTD PRO, setting a 1m47.673s to lead the class aboard the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3. It was a Mercedes-AMG 1-2 in GTD PRO, with Fabian Schiller putting the No. 69 GetSpeed car up into second place.

Despite spending a significant portion of the evening sidelined with an anti-lock brake system problem, the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 was able to flash some pace as Mirko Bortolotti went up to third late.

Likewise, in GTD, Myers Riley Motorsports’ No. 16 Ford Mustang GT3 Evo was quickest, courtesy of a 1m47.733s from Felipe Fraga. In second was Indy Dontje in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG once again, trailed by Casper Stevenson, who was third-fastest in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The Roar Before The 24 concludes on Sunday with two sessions, the first of which starts at 9:45 AM ET.

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