Vanthoor Puts BMW On Top in Opening Day of Roar

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Dries Vanthoor was quickest in the opening day of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship testing at the Roar Before the Rolex 24, putting BMW M Team RLL on the top of the time sheets in the second session.

The Belgian reeled off a best lap of 1:35.424 early in Friday’s two-hour session in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to edge out the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Nick Yelloly by 0.195 seconds.

Romain Grosjean set the third quickest time in the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63, while Sheldon van der Linde and Colin Braun completed the top-five for Team RLL and MSR, respectively.

Times were marginally quicker in the late afternoon session at Daytona International Speedway in the GTP ranks, although Malthe Jakobsen’s 1:38.673 in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca 07 Gibson from Session 1 stood as quickest of the day in LMP2.

Jakobsen’s Peugeot Hypercar teammate Mikkel Jensen posted the quickest time in the second session aboard the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca.

In GTD Pro, Andrea Caldarelli’s 1:47.626 in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 from the first session held as the quickest of the day, while AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich set the best time in class in Session 2.

A 1:48.237 lap time, however, from Maxi Goetz in the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo from the final session was quickest on Friday in GTD.

The afternoon session was halted early in the running after the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr stopped on the backstretch with a high voltage systems issue on the car’s second lap.

It resulted in the Brazilian driver jumping out of the car per IMSA’s HV protocol. The car did not return for the remainder of the session.

A second red came with less than 20 minutes left on the clock for the No. 43 Inter Eurpol Competition Oreca of Bijoy Garg, who went off in Turn 6. It came after an earlier incident by Garg that saw him rejoin under his own power.

Saturday’s WeatherTech Championship testing action kicks off at 11:15 a.m. ET.

RESULTS: Session 2