Proton Porsche slithers to a wet lead in sixth Roar session

Proton Competition’s No. 5 Porsche 963 set the fastest time in Sunday’s rain-soaked sixth IMSA Roar Before the 24 session, which got underway at midday rather than 9:45 a.m. due to heavy rain, thunder and lightning trackside.

Neel Jani set the best time, a 1m45.433s, to go 0.4s up on the other privately entered GTP car in the field, the No. 85 963 from JDC-Miller that took second. Gianmaria Bruni was fastest in the “Banana Boat” which completed just eight laps, the fewest in the class. The Italian’s hot lap was a 1m45.879s.

While the fastest lap times were nowhere close to the best from the dry running, the session —  hit by multiple rain showers — did hand the teams a chance to familiarize themselves with the circuit in wet conditions for the first time.

“For us, we decided to drive because we haven’t had any experience in Daytona in the wet with the car,” Jani said. “So we tried it out to see how the tires develop and gather data. In the beginning, there were dry patches but after that, it got worse. It was good to learn.

“Laps are laps, but next week it looks like it could be wet for qualifying day, so it could be useful.

“I think Turn 1 is a tricky one in the wet — as you cross the rubbered line it gets very slippery. That’s why you saw a lot of cars locking up under braking.”

The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac ended up third after a 1m46.240s tour from Jack Aitken. The car did hit minor trouble during the hour when Felipe Drugovich was spotted by TV cameras limping back to pit road with a right-rear puncture.

RLL BMW wound up fourth with the No. 25 and the No. 60 Meyer Shank Acura ran fifth.

In LMP2, despite both its cars suffering spins, United Autosports USA managed to place its two ORECAs in the top three on the timing screens. Peugeot Hypercar driver Paul Di Resta put the No. 22 at the top of the pile with a 1m49.870s — the only time under 1m50s in the session. United’s No. 2 ended up third.

The No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA split the two, with a 1m50.440s from Mikkel Jensen.

Inception Racing’s No. 70 Ferrari set the pace in GTD with a 1m57.033s from Ollie Millroy. Franck Perera placed Forte’s Lamborghini second. Further down the order, the fastest GTD Pro car — the No. 3 Corvette — would end up sixth in the combined ranking.

There were multiple red flag stoppages in the session, including one for the No. 5 Proton Porsche spinning at pit-in, as well as the No. 22 United ORECA looping around at Turn 1, plus one for heavy rain that brought the session to a premature end with 3.5m left on the clock.

One more Roar session remains, as teams are currently waiting on news of when it will get underway due to the weather delays.

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