Mazda Team Joest has topped the timesheets at the end of the opening day of the Roar Before the 24, the traditional test weekend ahead of the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Olivier Pla set the quickest time of the day in the #77 Mazda RT24-P, which sports an all-new white colour scheme. The Frenchman set the pace with a time of 01:35:794. This was a mere 0.080s quicker than Jonathan Bomarito in the #55 Mazda. Both drivers were faster than Harry Tincknell’s morning efforts in the #55 car.
Third place was held by Filipe Albuquerque in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-VR, who set a 01:36:273 ahead of the two Team Penskes Acura ARX-05s, with the #7 of Helio Castroneves quickest of the two to go fourth and fifth respectively.
Colton Herta was quickest in GTLM, with a 01:44:329 for BMW Team RLL that beat out the debuting Porsche 911 RSR-19s of Laurens Vanthoor and Fred Makowiecki, who were second and third. Daniel Serra took fourth in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, while the debuting Corvette C8.R brought up the rear in class.
Simon Trummer’s #52 ORECA 07-Gibson set the pace in LMP2 for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport, while Marco Mapelli put the #44 GRT Magnus Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo up top in GT Daytona to end the first day of running at Daytona International Speedway.
