Speed is seldom the primary objective of pre-season testing, although any of the 31 participants in the IMSA test at Daytona International Speedway would take pride in topping the timing screens.
For most teams and manufacturers, the November test is mostly about integrating new personnel and learning how their cars react to changes in chassis setup and atmospheric conditions. Thereโs no substitute for time on track when it comes to learning.
Cars from all four classes that contest the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship shared the 3.56-mile road course Saturday, a marathon day of testing that spread 10 hours of track time through three sessions, including two hours of night running. The test concludes Sunday with two three-hour sessions exclusively for the GTD and GTD PRO classes.
Prior to the Saturday night session, Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanianโs pair of Acura ARX-06 were the pacesetters overall and for the GTP class. Nick Yellolyโs 1m35.708s lap in the Saturday morning session in the No. 93 car was best of all, narrowly ahead of Tom Blomqvistโs 1m35.905s set Friday afternoon in the No. 60.
Those times were about three seconds off the GTP lap record set by Pipo Derani in qualifying for the 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Yelloly is new to the MSR Acura effort this year, having spent the last two years racing in the GTP class for BMW M Team RLL.
โWeโve been ticking off everything we can do on our program, making sure we constructively test everything we need to before we come back here for the Rolex 24 in January,โ Yelloly said. โEverything has gone smoothly. We had a test last week at Sebring. That was my first impression of the car and the team. Here at Daytona, itโs always nice to kind of see what youโre like in terms of just general drivability compared to the competition.
โLap time-wise, itโs always nice to see yourself further at the front, but it doesnโt matter until we go racing, to be honest. Solid couple days, and it will be nice to feel what the car is like at night. Obviously, this car has very different tendencies to what Iโve been used to. Weโve got traffic here, so Iโve been seeing where I can or canโt overtake, or if itโs different to what Iโve been used to. Working with the guys and girls here at Meyer Shank and with HRC (Honda Racing Corporation USA) has been fantastic.โ
Among GTP competitors, Porsche Penske Motorsportโs No. 6 Porsche 963 completed the most laps in every of the first four sessions, a total of 487 circuits. That was a robust 171 laps more than the next-best total of 316 turned by the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, and more than BMW M Team RLL managed with both of its BMW M Hybrid V8s (390).
While BMW was lacking in terms of mileage, its cars were solidly on the pace. They ran in the top three in each of the first three sessions, before a reduced workload Saturday afternoon saw the No. 24 car run only 10 laps. Also showing speed was the No. 63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63, which was fastest on Friday morning in the hands of Andrea Caldarelli and ran P2 on Saturday afternoon driven by Romain Grosjean.
Dennis Olsen led the way in GTD PRO with Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Mustang GT3. Michael Levitt/Lumen
Mustangs off to solid start in GTD PRO
In the GT classes, the Ford Mustang GT3 showed steady improvement throughout the 2024 season, culminating in 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 fielded by Ford Multimatic Motorsports.
Olsen was timed at 1m48.177s in the Saturday afternoon session, edging teammate Seb Priaulx in the No. 64 Mustang by 0.019s with a time also set in Session 4.
Eliott Skeerโs Saturday afternoon best was fastest in the GTD class and third among all GT runners at 1m48.438s.
โItโs definitely really nice to be back in IMSA,โ said Olsen, who drove a Mustang for Proton Competition in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2024. โIโm really enjoying being back driving on Michelin tires in the best championship in the world.
โIโm getting into the groove here with Multimatic and itโs very nice. The team is very new to me, and we are working to get the two cars communicating strongly together. Weโre sharing everything and working together as a team and as a group.
โWeโre working on all the systems trying to prepare for the big one,โ he added. โStill a lot left to do, and itโs definitely challenging, but weโll keep on working and improving.โ
Malthe Jakobsen turned the fastest lap of the test for the LMP2 class at 1m38.635s on Friday afternoon.
IMSA-sanctioned testing at Daytona wraps up Sunday.
RESULTS
