Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing continues to put forth a full effort to keep their car out front as we approach the 62nd Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. The No. 31 GTP car has led the majority of the practice sessions leading up to the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Pipo Derani’s pace in qualifying also secured the team pole position for the race. Whelen finished Thursday’s practice session 3 tenths ahead of the No. 07 Penske Porsche which split the two Cadillac’s of Whelen and Chip Ganassi Racing. The Cadillac have looked extremely strong leading up to the race. Saturday we will determine if they can carry this early success into a solid lead before the half way point in the race.
LMP2
Crowdstrike Racing ran the fastest lap in the third race week practice session. Crowdstrike has been hovering in the top 5 since the start of the ROAR Before the 24; the pre amble to Rolex 24. The LMP2 class should be a tight race considering the top 5 cars are all within less than a second of each other. Tomorrow’s final practice session will be the final shake down for the car before race time. Lap times are expected to improve further as the cars receive their final adjustments and drivers their final debriefs before the race.
The LMP2 finish will be something to look forward to given the dramatic finish. The finish showed race fans how important every decision a team makes and how 24 hours of racing can come down to fractions of a second.
GTD/GTD Pro
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsport pulled a 1-2 in Practice 3 with the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R finishing 0.088 seconds ahead of the sister No. 3 car. Just under one tenth behind was the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.
In GTD it was the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) that leads the field into practice 4 tomorrow afternoon.
Action gets started on Friday at 11:20am EST for the final practice session before the race.