Friday
Friday saw two sessions of testing for the WeatherTech Championship Series teams. Both sessions saw Neel Jani take Rebellion Racing's Oreca to the top of the charts, establishing them as a legit competitor in this year's twice-around-the-clock classic. Other than Rebellion, the only drivers in the 1:39 bracket were Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi and Mikhail Goikhberg in JDC-Miller Motorsports' new Oreca.
In PC, all five cars were within 1.3 seconds of each other in Practice 1, with the two BAR1 Motorsports cars driven by Johnny Mowlem and Gustavo Yacaman falling into the 1:42 and 1:43 laptime bracket, respectively, in Practice 2.
In GTLM, the quartet of Ganassi Ford GTs and the two Corvettes paced the field. Both the 3 and 4 Corvettes hit into the 1:44 laptime bracket. The GTs only managed to hit 1:45s in Practice 1, but three of the four hit into the 1:44 range in Practice 2, dominating the Corvettes. Jan Magnussen ran the fastest time of the day, with a 1:44.760 in Practice 1. The BMWs, Porsches, and the lone Ferrari from Risi Competizione lagged behind the the Fords and Chevrolets.
GTD saw a very competitive field, with much of the field falling in the 1:47 and 1:48 laptimes. Conor De Phillippi and Land Motorsport's Audi R8 led Practice 1 with a 1:47.629, and Andrew Davis took Stevenson Motorsports' Audi R8 to the top of the board in Practice 2 with a time of 1:47.553. Also falling into the 1:47 time range was the SunEnergy1 Racing and the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes, and the CORE Autosport Porsche.
Saturday
Saturday saw the great equalizer come into play, with rain falling on Practice 3 at Daytona. Practice 4 and 5 (the night practice), however, were dry.
In Prototype, Neel Jani and Rebellion continued to be the class of the field, with Jani slipping into the 1:38 laptimes as night fell. The Mazda DPis also showed their potential, with both Mazdas running 1:39 laps after being hindered with suspension issues along with Visit Florida Racing on Friday. DragonSpeed also showed some speed on Saturday, along with VFR. Action Express finally broke into the 1:39s in Practice 4 with Christian Fittipaldi after a quiet weekend most likely result of IMSA's BOP for the DPi.
In PC, Mazda Road to Indy driver Pato O'Ward and Performance Tech Motorsports were the class of the small contingent on Saturday after BAR1 Motorsports' #20 car's weekend ended with engine issues. O'Ward ran a 1:43.119.
For GTLM, the CGR Ford GTs once again led the class, with the Corvettes and the Porsches closing in to a few tenths off the leading pace of the GTs. IndyCar regular Scott Dixon ran the quickest time of the day with a 1:44.558, showing the open-wheel veteran has a long future ahead of him once his IndyCar career is over.
In GTD, the field once again mostly fell within two seconds of each other, showing the competitiveness of this class in 2017. In Practice 4, the Italian Ebimotors team topped the charts in their Lamborghini Huracan, with Jeff Segal and the #86 Acura NSX following in second. In Practice 5, the Land Motorsport Audi once again found itself in P1, this time with Christopher Mies running the fast time. Jack Hawksworth took the Lexus RC F to P2, as he ran the only other sub-1:48 GTD time of the day.
Sunday
As one would expect, Sunday saw most of the fast times of the test. The final day of the Roar saw unusual cold conditions in Daytona, as Florida finally felt the wrath of winter that most of the United States had already seen at some point this year.
In Prototype, the DragonSpeed team once again showed speed, with Ben Hanley setting the fastest time of the Roar at 1:38.343, edging Jonathan Bomarito's time in his Mazda DPi by two hundredths of a second. Sebastian Buemi set the fastest lap of Rebellion's impressive test with a 1:38.408. Also falling into the 1:38 bracket were PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports' Ligier, both of Action Express' Cadillac DPis, the Visit Florida Racing Riley, and the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi. The P class was similarly grouped as in the GTDs, with the entire class falling within a 1.3 second gap.
In PC, only 2 of the 5 entries were able to run faster times on Sunday, that being the Performance Tech entry and the #8 car from Starworks. It remains yet to be seen if Peter Baron will run his PCs at Daytona, although his presence at the Roar seems to all but confirm he will participate.
The entire GTLM class, sans the #68 Ford GT set their quickest lap of the test on Sunday. Two IndyCar-rooted drivers brought the Ford GTs to the top of the test however, that being Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan in the #67 and the #69, respectively. All the remaining GTLM entries ran within 8 tenths of Briscoe's fast time of 1:44.380. The highlight of the day was, of course, the fire in #4 Corvette that turned the beautiful beast into a well-cooked heap of ash. Marcel Fassler, who was behind the wheel at the time, was uninjured. Do remember that the same thing happened last year, and the Corvette team went on to a pretty successful year that saw them eventually win the championship.
In GTD, legendary Manthey Racing set the fast time of the test, with Porsche factory driver Sven Mueller wheeling the #59 Porsche to a 1:46.810, just under a tenth quicker than Jeroen Bleekemolen's time in his #33 Mercedes. The GTD field was separated by 2.2 seconds at the end of the test, with a vast majority of the field falling in a closer range.
In PC, only 2 of the 5 entries were able to run faster times on Sunday, that being the Performance Tech entry and the #8 car from Starworks. It remains yet to be seen if Peter Baron will run his PCs at Daytona, although his presence at the Roar seems to all but confirm he will participate.
The entire GTLM class, sans the #68 Ford GT set their quickest lap of the test on Sunday. Two IndyCar-rooted drivers brought the Ford GTs to the top of the test however, that being Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan in the #67 and the #69, respectively. All the remaining GTLM entries ran within 8 tenths of Briscoe's fast time of 1:44.380. The highlight of the day was, of course, the fire in #4 Corvette that turned the beautiful beast into a well-cooked heap of ash. Marcel Fassler, who was behind the wheel at the time, was uninjured. Do remember that the same thing happened last year, and the Corvette team went on to a pretty successful year that saw them eventually win the championship.
In GTD, legendary Manthey Racing set the fast time of the test, with Porsche factory driver Sven Mueller wheeling the #59 Porsche to a 1:46.810, just under a tenth quicker than Jeroen Bleekemolen's time in his #33 Mercedes. The GTD field was separated by 2.2 seconds at the end of the test, with a vast majority of the field falling in a closer range.
What We Learned
The Oreca's are clearly the class of the P2s right now. For the DPis, the Cadillacs and Mazdas seem to have some speed, with the Nissan's trailing a little farther behind. The #13 of Rebellion Racing continues to be my favorite to win the event, however it remains to be seen how IMSA will end up BOPing everyone at the end of the day. Hopefully, politics will not play a role and IMSA will not end up ruling the P2s out of a win before race day.
Ford and Chevrolet continue to be the class of the GTLM field. Porsche, BMW, and Ferrari continue to lag behind on overall pace, but only by a few tenths of a second. At the end of the day, the numbers Ford and CGR are bringing to Daytona will win them the race in my opinion, just as it did at Le Mans last year.
GTD seems to have three main competitiors: Porsche, Audi, and Mercedes. There is no defending winner returning to the race this year, with John Potter and Magnus not returning this year after clashes with IMSA's rulings late last season. It is reviving to see Porsche at the top of the boards for GTD, after a season which saw all but one of the manufacturer's entries either move to PWC or drop out of racing completely after what many ruled to be an unfair BOP on the Porsches. To me, this class still remains up in the air as to who will win, and I expect it to stay that way until about an hour to go on January 29th. As one might expect, the new machines from Lexus and Acura did not have much pace. It will be interesting to see if their all-star driver lineups will able to bring the new cars to the front on race day or if the mechanical gremlins that have stemmed new programs in recent years will affect them too.
Be ready to for previews for both the Hankook 24 Hours of Dubai and the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona to come out a few days before each race.
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