Tom Blomqvist of the #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 was the fastest driver during the opening session of the Roar Before the 24 pre-event test.
The Roar Before the 24 (Hours of Daytona) pre-event testing kicked off the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship with the first out of seven testing sessions over the course of three days.
A 1-hour and 15-minute slot at the Daytona International Speedway saw 61 cars across four categories take the track for the first time.
Qualifying will not be held during the Roar for the first time since 2020 which has made room for an additional session in comparison to last year. It will host solely FIA Bronze-graded drivers from the LMP2 and GTD categories in a 1-hour and 30-minute outing on Sunday.
Much of the opening session ran smoothly as drivers explored track limits and some having their lap times deleted respectively.
There were only two red flag periods, the first of which was declared with a possible intention to clear debris thus all cars pitted and returned to the circuit with 11 minutes remaining on the clock.
Soon afterwards, the session was disrupted again and the chequered flag was called three-minutes early after AO Racing’s PJ Hyett went off at Turn 7 and coontinued with a flat tyre on his #99 Oreca 07 LMP2.
Blomqvist opens the Roar at the top
Meyer Shank’s Blomqvist was fastest in the #60 Acura after he set a 1:35.827 lap time. Marco Wittmann of the #25 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 was second-fastest with his 1:36.103 time.
Gianmaria Bruni rounded off the top-three GTP class positions in the #85 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 with a 1:36.182.
In the LMP2 category, Malthe Jakobsen was quickest in the class of Oreca 07s with a 1:38.673 lap time for the #04 Crowdstrike Racing entrant.
Ben Hanley set the #2 United Autosports USA Oreca in second after he completed a time of 1:38.673 and reigning Le Mans 24 Hours winner Nicklas Nielsen took third with a 1:38.905 for AF Corse.
Pfaff Motorsports’ Marco Mapelli was at the top of the GT field with a quickest time of 1:47.626 in the GTD Pro #9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, followed by the #83 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3.R competing in the GTD class.
Rahel Frey drove a 1:48.084 lap time in the eye-catching pink machine ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.
The 2023 overall Le Mans winner put down a 1:50.326 lap time in front of Matt Bell’s #13 AWA Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R (1:50.326) which took third in GTD.
Meanwhile the next GTD Pro car was the reigning champion #77 AO Racing ‘Rexy’ Porsche which set a 1:48.200 thanks to Klaus Bachler.
The #81 Dragonspeed Ferrari driver Davide Rigon set a 1:48.398 for third in the GTD Pro class, seventh in the combined GT classification.
See here for the full results as Session 2 will continue the Roar action at later at 3pm local / 8pm UK time for a two hour run.
