BMW tops the times in Roar test ahead of Daytona 24…

BMW ended up fastest and topped the times in three sessions over the official Roar test ahead of this weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar Championship season-opener.

A 1m35.424s around the Daytona International Speedway from Dries Vanthoor on the opening day aboard the #24 Rahal BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh stood as the best time of the three-day test in which GTP class machinery took to the track in six sessions.

The Belgian’s time in session two of the Roar before the Rolex 24 edged out a 1m35.619s from Nick Yelloly driving the #93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 LMDh in the same period on Friday.

Acura also took third sport in the combined times with Tom Blomqvist in the #60 Shank Acura courtesy of a 1m35.827s in the opening session earlier in the day.

BMW was quickest in both daylight sessions on Saturday with the #25 Rahal entry, Marco Wittmann leading the way in the morning and Sheldon van der Linde claiming top spot in the afternoon.

Porsche was fastest in the nighttime session with Laurens Vanthoor in the #7 963 LMDh run by the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport squad.

The customer Proton Competition Porsche with Neel Jani driving went fastest in the wet in the only session open to GTP class machinery on Sunday. The running in the final GTP test session was delayed by over two hours due to heavy rain and lightning in the region.

Lamborghini took fourth spot in the combined times with a 1m36.041s set by Romain Grosjean in the solo factory SC63 LMDh in the second session.

Van der Linde’s 1m36.093s in the same period, a tenth up on his best in the fourth session, put the #25 BMW fifth overall.

Gianmaria Bruni took sixth in the #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche with a 1m36.182s in the opening session.

Laurens Vanthoor’s 1m36.271s in the night on Saturday gave the #7 Porsche seventh spot ahead of Earl Bamber in the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh.

Mathieu Jaminet in #6 PPM Porsche and Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac rounded out the top 10.

The LMP2 class was headed by #04 Algarve Pro Racing-run Crowdstrike Racing ORECA-Gibson 07 in which Malthe Jakobsen posted a test-best 1m38.673s in the opening session.

Ben Hanley was just over a tenth behind in 1m38.806s in #2 United Autosports ORECA.

Andrea Caldarelli led the way in GT Daytona Pro in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 on 1m47.626s.

Reigning class champion Laurin Heinrich took second in class in the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R on 1m47.775s.

Lamborghini also claimed top spot in GTD with the Forte Racing Huracan in which Franck Perera lapped in 1m48.036s.

Qualifying for the Daytona 24 Hours has been moved back into race week after four years during which it took place on the Roar weekend.

The qualifying sessions take place on Thursday afternoon on the first day of track running in race week.