Speed is rarely the primary goal of pre-season testing, although any of the 31 competitors in the IMSA test at Daytona International Speedway would be proud to be at the top of the timing screens.
For most teams and manufacturers, the November test is very much about integrating new personnel and learning how their cars respond to changes in chassis setup and atmospheric conditions. There is no substitute for time on track when it comes to learning.
Cars from all four classes competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship shared the 5.56-mile road course on Saturday, a marathon test day that saw 10 hours of track time spread over three sessions, including two hours of night driving. The test concludes on Sunday with two three-hour sessions exclusively for the GTD and GTD PRO classes.
Before the Saturday evening session, Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Acura ARX-06 were the pacesetters overall and for the GTP class. Nick Yelloly’s lap of 1.35.708 minutes in the Saturday morning session in the No. 93 car was the best of all, narrowly ahead of Tom Blomqvist’s lap of 1.35.905 minutes set in the No. 60 on Friday afternoon.
Those times were approximately three seconds lower than Pipo Derani’s GTP lap record during qualifying for the Rolex 24 At Daytona 2024.
Yelloly is new to MSR Acura this year, having raced in the GTP class for BMW M Team RLL for the past two years.
“We’ve checked off everything we can do in our program and made sure we constructively test everything we need before we come back here in January for the Rolex 24,” Yelloly said. “Everything went smoothly. Last week we had a test at Sebring. That was my first impression of the car and the team. Here at Daytona it’s always fun to see where you stack up in terms of overall handling compared to the competition.
“In terms of lap time, it’s always nice to see yourself further up front, but honestly it doesn’t matter until we start racing. A few solid days, and it will be nice to feel what the car is like at night. It’s clear that this car has very different tendencies than I’m used to. We have traffic here, so I looked at where I can or cannot overtake, and whether it is different than I am used to. It was fantastic working with the guys and girls here at Meyer Shank and with HRC (Honda Racing Corporation USA).
Of the GTP competitors, the No. 6 Porsche 963 of Porsche Penske Motorsport completed the most laps in each of the first four sessions, a total of 487 circuits. That was a whopping 171 laps more than the second-best total of 316 of the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, and more than BMW M Team RLL managed with both its BMW M Hybrid V8s (390) .
Although BMW fell short in terms of mileage, its cars were solidly up to date. They ran in the top three in each of the first three sessions, before the No. 24 car completed just ten laps due to a reduced workload on Saturday afternoon. Also showing speed was the number 63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63, which was fastest on Friday morning in the hands of Andrea Caldarelli and was P2 on Saturday afternoon, driven by Romain Grosjean.
Mustangs are off to a solid start in GTD PRO
In the GT classes, the Ford Mustang GT3 showed steady improvement throughout the 2024 season, highlighted by a pair of podium finishes. The Mustang program continued its upward trend at the Daytona test, as Dennis Olsen led all GT class runners in the No. 65 GTD PRO Mustang GT3 of Ford Multimatic Motorsports.
Olsen clocked a time of 1.48.177 seconds in the Saturday afternoon session, edging teammate Seb Priaulx in the No. 64 Mustang by 0.019 seconds, while also setting a time in Session 4.
Eliott Skeer’s best Saturday afternoon was fastest in the GTD class and third among all GT runners with 1m48.438s.
“It’s definitely a lot of fun to be back in IMSA,” said Olsen, who drove a Mustang for Proton Competition in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship. “I’m really enjoying riding on Michelin tires again in the best championship in the world.
“I really get into the mood here with Multimatic and it’s a lot of fun. The team is very new to me and we are working on getting the two cars to communicate strongly with each other. We share everything and work together as a team and as a group.
“We are working on all systems and trying to prepare for the big one,” he added. “There is still a lot to be done and it is certainly a challenge, but we will continue to work and improve.”
Malthe Jakobsen set the fastest lap of the test for the LMP2 class on Friday afternoon with 1.38.635s.
IMSA-sanctioned testing at Daytona ends Sunday.
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