In a recent session, a remarkable lap time of 1m32.656s was achieved by a Brazilian driver on the 3.56-mile road course in an Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, securing the pole position.
This lap surpassed last year’s record of 1m34.031s set by Tom Blomqvist, who is now a member of Derani’s team. It also exceeded the 1m33.685s fastest-ever prototype lap set by Oliver Jarvis in a Mazda DPi, securing pole position in 2019.
Sebastien Bourdais, a Cadillac Racing member from Chip Ganassi Racing, came closest to Derani, securing the second position with a margin of just 0.071s.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 963 delivered an adventurous performance. Despite spinning out in Turn 5, Felipe Nasr finished third, 0.220s off the peak time. The top three were the only ones to achieve sub-1m33s laps.
Connor De Phillippi put up a strong performance with the BMW M Hybrid V8, finishing a tight fourth, 0.366s behind. The No. 40 car from Wayne Taylor Racing, an Andretti Acura ARX-06 powered by Louis Deletraz, finished fifth with 0.444s off the pole.
Proton Competition, the only GTP team failing to post a qualifying lap, experienced a crash by Neel Jani during the pre-race GTP warm-up session. The Porsche 963, dealing with traffic on cold tires in Turn 5, had only been in play for two laps when the incident occurred.
The IMSA Daytona 24h Roar witnessed the Ganassi Cadillac of Álex Palou topping the charts with the fastest lap in the night test.
In the LMP2 class, driver Ben Keating continued to display dominance in qualifying, grabbing the pole with a time of 1m38.501s in the No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA. Notably, this marks Keating’s fifth consecutive year of achieving the class pole.
In a close second was Nick Boulle, only 0.102s behind, competing in the No. 52 ORECA for Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports. Crowdstrike Racing’s representative, George Kurtz, finished somewhat distant third, lagging 0.751s behind.
In the GTD and GTD Pro categories, AO Racing’s Seb Priaulx achieved the fastest lap in GTD Pro with a class track record of 1m44.382s, driving the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). This record is considerably quicker than the previous year’s record of 1m46.093s set by Philip Ellis of Winward Racing.
Jack Hawksworth closely trailed by only 0.080s, securing second place in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Hawksworth’s co-driver Parker Thompson put the team’s No. 12 car on the pole in the Pro-Am GTD category with a 1m44.494s sprint, a slim 0.043s ahead of second place Klaus Bachler of MDK Motorsports.
In the GTD class, Katherine Legge finished third, representing Gradient Racing’s Acura NSX GT3, 0.146s behind the pace set by Thompson.
During the start of the GTD and GTD Pro qualifying, an accident occurred involving David Brule of Kellymoss with Riley. Brule ran the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) into the barrier when exiting the pit lane, causing the first red flag.
