Daytona Sunday Notebook

Photo: Jonathan Grace

***Heavy rains and lightning in the area delayed the start of the third and final day of on-track action at the Roar Before the Rolex 24, with the final all-class IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship session having been delayed from 9:45 to 12 p.m. ET.

***Neel Jani set the quickest time in the final session of the Roar for all drivers, leading a 1-2 for customer Porsche 963s after the pair of Penske Porsches sat out the rain-soaked session. An abbreviated 83-minute session for Bronze-rated drivers only completed the on-track action for the series later in the afternoon following the delayed start to the second VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race due to track conditions.

***Jani said: “For us we decided to drive because we had not yet had any experience in Daytona in the wet with the car. Definitely, just trying it out, seeing how the tire and pressures develop, especially on the banking, gathering data… Next week it looks like on qualifying day it could be wet. This way we have a bit of experience.”

***Click Here for the combined results from the three-day test, which was led by BMW M Team RLL’s Dries Vanthoor, whose pace-setting time was set on Friday.

***DXDT Racing has added a third Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R to its existing fleet for its WeatherTech Championship program according to team manager Bryan Sellers. The chassis that is contesting the Rolex 24 with Alec Udell, Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Pipo Derani will also be pressed into the service for the sprint races, driven by Robert Wickens and a yet-to-be-confirmed co-driver.

***Tatiana Calderon said Gradient Racing’s switch from Acura to Ford presents the team with “a world of opportunity” after it ran up against the “maximum” it could extract from the NSX GT3 Evo22 due to the previous car’s older age. “In the Acura, you knew what works,” Calderon told Sportscar365. “You go through that window and it’s like the maximum, really. You’re there or thereabouts. Here, there’s a world of opportunity of how much we can we lean on this.”

***Mattia Drudi’s WeatherTech Championship debut, racing as part of Heart of Racing Team’s GTD lineup, will carry personal significance for the 26-year-old, as it follows 25 years after a Daytona class win for his father. Luca Drudi triumphed as part of the lineup for Haberthur Racing, sharing a Porsche 996 GT3-R with Gabrio Rosa, Fabio Rosa and Fabio Babini in the GTU class.

***Kelvin van der Linde, who makes his debut as a BMW factory driver at Daytona with Paul Miller Racing, revealed that he had been under consideration for an earlier first outing in the Michelin 24H Dubai. “We worked on Dubai potentially maybe to go do that race, but it was pretty last minute,” van der Linde told Sportscar365. “So we said, let’s go to the Roar.”

***The South African hinted a reunion with younger brother Sheldon is on the cards, with him saying they are set to share a car “sooner rather than later.” The two van der Lindes made a number of high-profile shared starts in their Audi days, including an overall podium at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa in 2018.

***New Acura Meyer Shank Racing signing Nick Yelloly left the door open to appearances in GT3 racing this season, despite Acura currently having no more presence in GT3 racing after the NSX GT3 Evo22 was effectively phased out.

***Yelloly told Sportscar365: “If there’s chances to race a GT car, I’m actually allowed to go and race a different GT car. And I would, so there isn’t any issues with that. I know 24H Spa is free this year in terms of calendar. If there’s a seat going for 24H Spa at some point, then I’d jump in it. No problem.”

***Ben Keating labeled his Rolex 24 outing with Trackhouse by TF Sport as “extremely useful” as he prepares to rejoin the Tom Ferrier-run operation in the FIA World Endurance Championship. “It’s seat time,” Keating told Sportscar365. “It’s the exact same car. It’s not the same tire, but it’s the same car, and it’s extremely useful. The WEC team is doing some testing before the season opener in Qatar, and I won’t be there, so this is my testing. I have other day job commitments but I have to tend to.”

***The 2025 WeatherTech Championship season marks the 14th consecutive year of the GM-Action Express Racing prototype affiliation. Whelen Engineering recently extended its primary sponsorship with Action Express Racing through 2027, which will mark ten years of the partnership.

***While Magnus Racing is officially hitting “pause” on its program following the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Sportscar365 understands that the team could still return for selected WeatherTech Championship races later this season, once team owner/driver John Potter’s increased business commitments settle down.

***IMSA has no plans to introduce torque sensors in the new-for-2025 GTDX class in VP Racing SportsCar Challenge in the future according to the sanctioning body’s technical director Matt Kurdock, who confirmed the GT3-spec cars will continue to be regulated by air restrictors or boost pressure levels.

***Kurdock told Sportscar365: “For the foreseeable future, we will continue [the current configuration]. That does involve having to dyno test engines when models are introduced. We’re clearly very sensitive to costs, especially in the support series.”

***On-track action will resume on Wednesday with Michelin Pilot Challenge and Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup practice, while practice, as well as qualifying, is on tap for the Rolex 24 on Thursday. Peacock and IMSA.tv will carry live coverage of qualifying on Thursday beginning at 2:05 p.m. ET.

***The new-look IMSA Radio team is expected to be announced in the coming days. Brian Till was joined by Ryan Myrehn for coverage of the season-opening VP Racing Challenge races this weekend.

Davey Euwema & Jonathan Grace contributed to this report