Vanthoor Fronts Porsche Penske 1-2 in Third Roar Session

Laurens Vanthoor led a Porsche Penske Motorsport 1-2 in the third Roar Before the Rolex 24 session at Daytona International Speedway.

Vanthoor’s best lap of 1:36.549, set aboard the No. 6 Porsche 963, was 0.419 seconds faster than stablemate Laurin Heinrich in the sister No. 7 car.

The three Cadillac V-Series.Rs entered for next week’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener made up the remainder of the top five.

Filipe Albuquerque was third at the wheel of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing-entered example, followed by the No. 40 sister car of Will Stevens and the No. 31 Action Express Racing entry in the hands of Frederik Vesti.

Tom Blomqvist slotted into sixth aboard the No. 60 Acura ARX-06, while the sister No. 93 machine had its session curtailed by brake issues for Nick Yelloly.

The No. 23 Aston Martin Valkyrie ended the 90-minute session seventh with Ross Gunn at the wheel, while the pair of BMW M Hybrid V8s were eighth and ninth with Robin Frijns and Raffaele Marciello, respectively.

Marciello briefly encountered on-track issues when he stopped the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 at Turn 7, although he was able to continue.

The No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 completed the overall top ten.

Mathias Beche topped the LMP2 class for TDS Racing, reeling off a 1:40.159 aboard the No. 11 Oreca 07 Gibson to outpace United Autosports driver Hunter McElrea by 0.156 seconds.

McElrea, in turn, was just 0.035 seconds quicker than Jonny Edgar’s No. 99 AO Racing Oreca in third.

Ford continued to top the GT ranks for the second session in a row, courtesy of a 1:47.453 set by Felipe Fraga aboard the No. 16 Myers Riley Motorsports Mustang GT3 EVO.

In the process, the GTD leader was 0.159 seconds quicker than Will Power, who topped GTD Pro at the wheel of the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Power, in turn, narrowly outpaced Mercedes-AMG factory driver Maxime Martin at the wheel of the No. 69 GetSpeed machine.

Sandy Mitchell was third in GTD Pro in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, followed by Winward Racing’s No. 57 car in GTD driven by Indy Dontje.

Three LMP2 Teams Given Technical Non-Compliance Penalties

IMSA announced prior to the start of the 90-minute session on Saturday that three LMP2 teams would be sidelined for the majority of the session as a result of significant penalties for technical non-compliance.

Tower Motorsports, Era Motorsport and Pratt Miller Motorsports all received a stop plus 60 minutes penalty as the cars were found with unapproved sensors.

A statement issued by IMSA regarding the penalty read: “IMSA requires all cars to run only the components, systems, and configurations that are explicitly approved for both the class and the individual homologations.

“Anything outside of that, regardless of function, is considered non-compliant.”

“The penalty is being applied as a session-time loss to restore sporting equity and ensure all cars operate within the same technical framework.”

The three cars would join the session in the final 30 minutes once the penalty had been served.

Only one car ended up not setting a time: the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which had encountered clutch issues.

Several other cars encountered issues and caused stoppages during the session, notably including the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, which ground to a halt at Turn 3 with Harry King at the wheel.

Oliver Jarvis went off at Turn 5 in the No. 37 Intersport Racing Oreca but was able to continue, while Dave Musial Sr. brought the session to a premature end when the No. 123 Muehlner Motorsports Porsche stopped at Turn 7 with three minutes remaining.

The next Roar session is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Session 3