Daytona Friday Notebook

Photo: Jonathan Grace

***IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship cars took to Daytona International Speedway on Friday for the first of two test sessions at the Roar Before the Rolex 24. Tom Blomqvist topped the time charts in the opening session in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, while Dries Vanthoor set the quickest time of the day in the second session aboard the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8.

***Vanthoor said: “We are far from there, but it’s thanks to those guys back working that it’s all improving. We’ve not been stopping trying to improve the car. We have been testing a lot and trying to improve our issues, and let’s see next week if they pay off or not. I think that it will really show if all the work with it [is] for nothing or for victory maybe.”

***In addition to SunEnergy1 Racing, GetSpeed’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was also a late arrival, following flight delays from its base in Germany. The car arrived from Miami last night and completed installation laps in the opening session before setting the eighth quickest time in GTD Pro in the afternoon.

***The 75 Express-run Mercedes-AMG was the only car not to take to the track in the first session as it put the finishing touches on what is a freshly re-tubbed chassis for the Munich-based team. Maro Engel completed the car’s first laps in the afternoon. Engel recorded the tenth quickest time in GTD Pro in Session 2.

***GetSpeed, in its first U.S. race, is receiving equipment and personnel support from RealTime Racing, the same team that operated Anthony Bartone’s GT World Challenge America program in 2023. RealTime team owner Peter Cunningham and team manager Nathan Bonneau are among those on-site.

***Cunningham told Sportscar365 that he’s hopeful of putting together a GT3 program of his own in GTWC America this year although stressed that nothing has been finalized. The SRO America-run series kicks off at Sonoma Raceway in late March.

***Acura Meyer Shank Racing team co-owner Mike Shank told Sportscar365 that one of the two Acuras used in the team’s two-car 2025 GTP program is a brand new chassis from Acura, while the other has been carried over after being used by Wayne Taylor Racing last season. “One and one,” said Shank. “One’s new and one’s not.”

***Shank outlined the team’s Roar targets: “The cars are kind of what they are at this point, not a whole much more development on that, so getting all four in on each car, happy and fixed up [is the goal]. We’re still catching up, but so far, so good. We’ll see how today goes and tomorrow.”

***Conquest Racing’s Ferrari is the same chassis that Daniel Serra and Giacomo Altoe took to GTD Pro class victory in last year’s round at Road America according to team owner Eric Bacherlart, who is fielding two additional 296 GT3s this weekend in the opening rounds of VP Racing SportsCar Challenge.

***Richard Westbrook, who retired from full-time racing following last year’s Motul Petit Le Mans, is on-site this weekend helping his former team JDC-Miller Motorsports.

***A decision on Albert Costa’s full season co-driver in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari could be made by the end of the Rolex 24 according to team principal Elton Julian, who confirmed that Ferrari factory ace Davide Rigon will be the team’s third driver for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Motul Petit Le Mans.

***Julian indicated that it continues to evaluate Thomas Neubauer, one of Ferrari’s newest factory drivers, this weekend after the Frenchman made his team debut in last year’s season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and is also confirmed for the Rolex 24.

***DragonSpeed has leased the majority of its LMP2 equipment, including the Oreca 07 Gibson chassis it most recently raced, to Pratt Miller Motorsports for its upstart operation this year.

***IMSA plans to conduct a test of its new prototype/GT category split during the first 30 minutes of Saturday morning’s test session. Race control will announce a ten-minute window prior to the start of the exercise, which the sanctioning body has requested the participation from each team in order to “familiarize each competitor with the 2025 process.”

***The new-for-2025 process sees the separation of the prototype category from the GT category first, followed by a split of the respective classes, LMP2 and GTD from GTP and GTD Pro.

***Wayne Taylor Racing is understood to have placed at least one Hypercar entry request for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. It would join fellow IMSA Cadillac squad Action Express Racing, should both teams be granted entries to the French endurance classic by the ACO selection committee.

***Action Express race strategist Peter Baron told Sportscar365 that they already have a third driver secured to replace the Hertz Team JOTA-bound Earl Bamber should the team receive an entry for a third consecutive year. Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti are AXR’s two other drivers.

***Bamber will also miss the WeatherTech Championship round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca due to his full-time FIA World Endurance Championship commitments, with the team’s Michelin Endurance Cup pilot Vesti set to replace him for that race.

***Baron told Sportscar365: “Last year was a tough year with all the things that happened on track. We’re really done with the 2024 drama. It’s a new group of drivers and everything is just new and fresh. We’re just really excited to make it a new year and a new start.”

***IMSA’s STEM program debuted on Friday, with 30 students from two local schools: Spruce Creek High School and Atlantic High School of nearby Port Orange, Fla. running through four stations that included a session at the IMSA tech inspection area and an up-close look on how a helmet and firesuit are used and handled for drivers and crews.

***IMSA President John Doonan said: “I’m so proud that we could kick this off this year. It’s something, that I think is incredibly important for the entire sport… Now that we have, thanks to Gainbridge and Konica Minolta, the resource to do it, backed up by Everfi (custom education) and their ability to not only support us on-site, but also when the students leave and when the educators leave, then they can refer to what they experienced.”

Davey Euwema & Jonathan Grace contributed to this report