Bleekemolen, Black Swan Porsche Paces Daytona Test

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Sebastiaan Bleekemolen led a sweep of Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport entries in the three-day pre-season test for IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge competitors at Daytona International Speedway.

The Dutchman in the No. 540 Black Swan Racing Porsche saved the best for last, recording a 1:52.636 lap time in Sunday’s fifth and final session of the weekend.

Bleekemolen will be sharing Black Swan’s entry with brother Jeroen and team owner/driver Tim Pappas in next weekend’s four-hour season-opening BMW M Endurance Challenge.

The No. 47 Nolasport Porsche of Jason Hart also made a last-session improvement to end up second quickest in the test, followed by Andrew Davis’ No. 8 McCann Racing Porsche in third, whose time was set on Saturday during Session 4.

Tyler McQuarrie made it four of the new-for-2022 Porsches in the top-four in GS with the CarBahn with Peregrine Racing entry, followed by the No. 40 PF Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Chad McCumbee, who was best of the rest in fifth.

GMG Racing’s James Sofronas put another new Porsche sixth on the time charts followed by Hailie Deegan in the No. 42 PF Mustang GT4 in seventh.

The No. 40 PF Mustang of Harrison Burton was one of several cars to bring out red flags over the course of the weekend, with the NASCAR driver having stopped on track after sustaining right-front damage to the car during the final session.

Unitronic JDC-Miller Motorsports paced the TCR class in an 1-2-3 for Audi RS 3 LMS TCR machinery.

Chris Miller’s 1:59.459 from Friday’s Session 2 ended up being quickest of the test despite a final-session improvement by the No. 61 Road Shagger Racing Audi of Jon Morley.

The No. 44 New German Performance Audi of Tristan Herbert made it a clean sweep for the German manufacturer in the test.

Victor Gonzalez was the quickest non-Audi in the No. 99 VGRT Honda Civic Type-R TCR in fourth, with the fastest Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR ending up sixth on the time charts and nearly one-second behind.

RESULTS: Daytona Test (Combined)

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John