IMSA News: Vanthoor tops Roar Before the 24 night session
After BMW Team RLL paced the prior test sessions for the IMSA Roar Before the 24 it was Porsche that topped session 5 under the lights. Laurens Vanthoor turned a 1m36.498s lap to put the 2024 title-winning #7 Porsche 963 on top.
–by Mark Cipolloni–
The Porsche was followed by the two BMWs in second and third in the standings, with the #24 four-tenths quicker than the #25 around the Daytona International Speedway road course..
LMP2 saw Antonio Felix Da Costa fastest for Inter Europol Competition. The Le Mans-winning Polish team, which is competing on its own in IMSA this year, would end the night with a 1m39.618s fastest LMP2 lap.
It was all Porsche in GTD, with the top four spaces in the combined rankings all filled by 911 GT3 R 992s. Thomas Preining’s 1m48.034s put the #20 Porsche atop the timing screens.
There was so much stroking and sandbagging going on, it was difficult to tell who was really fastest in any of the categories. Why all the sandbagging? So they do not get hit with a famous IMSA BoP power loss or weight increase penalty.
Rain is forecast for Sunday so we may not see any more fast times after today.