Daytona Friday Notebook

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

***The opening day of track action at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 saw a minimal number of incidents, with Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani leading the way, thanks to a late flyer by the Brazilian in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

***The No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 was delayed joining the opening session as the car was still in the final process of being built according to Neel Jani, while the No. 43 Andretti Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R was the only car not to set a lap time.

***Andretti’s Porsche joined track action in the afternoon’s second session and logged a total of 35 laps with the 20th quickest time in the GTD class.

***An issue for Dennis Andersen’s No. 20 MDK by High Class Racing Oreca 07 Gibson, which brought out a red in the first session, resulted in no apparent damage to the LMP2 car, in the only noteworthy incident of the day.

***Pfaff Motorsports gained its first mileage with the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo this morning, with the car, which was delivered to the Canadian squad in mid-December, not having been able to conduct any previous testing due to delays in several components because of supply chain issues according to team manager Steve Bortolotti.

***The team also faced an issue during its trip to Daytona. “When we sent the car down, it froze in the trailer,” Bortolotti told Sportscar365. “The radiators cracked. We had a big thrash last night and this morning but it’s all fine. We ran this morning as intended, which is great and the McLaren folks have been awesome.”

***Bortolotti revealed that several Pfaff crew members, including engineers, will be supporting HubAuto’s entry in February’s Repco Bathurst 12 Hour, which will feature the identical driver lineup of Kevin Estre, Klaus Bachler and Patrick Pilet that was utilized in last year’s Motul Petit Le Mans.

***Maro Engel described Friday’s Roar running as ‘a bit of a shakedown’ for SunEnergy 1 Racing, as the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo that the team has brought to Daytona is the same chassis that retired from the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours with late-race engine problems. “Obviously the guys were on top of it,” Engel said. “Very experienced guys, very experienced Mercedes engineers and mechanics on the car, so I think we’re in good hands. Kenny [Habul] has put together a very strong package.”

***Several drivers traveling from Germany experienced travel delays as a result of disruptive winter weather. Frankfurt Airport, the country’s busiest, halted all takeoffs and canceled hundreds of flights. Paul Miller Racing’s Sheldon van der Linde missed Thursday’s media day activities because of a flight cancelation, while Luca Stolz, Maximilian Goetz and Jens Klingmann were also affected.

***Lone Star Racing driver Adam Christodoulou, meanwhile, also had a difficult commute to Daytona. As documented on his Instagram page, the British racer’s 43-hour journey from a vacation in India was impacted by four cancelations. However, he arrived at the track in time for the first Roar session, which saw him complete 11 laps at the wheel of the No. 80 Mercedes-AMG.

***IMSA and Michelin have updated the tire usage requirements for the Roar, allowing GTP teams to utilize the soft tire for Saturday’s two daytime sessions in addition to the already previously confirmed night session tomorrow.

***The Medium compound remains permitted for all Roar sessions this weekend as well as the official Rolex 24 practice sessions, with the exact allocation during the race to be determined closer to the event based on forecasted conditions.

***GTP teams were permitted both the soft and medium compound tires during the overnight portion of last year’s Rolex 24. Sportscar365 understands that more races are set to incorporate multiple tire compound options this year.

***Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid said there’s more flexibility in tire usage between the Roar and the Rolex 24 compared to the class debut in 2023. GTP teams are permitted to use 33 sets at the Roar and official Rolex 24 practice sessions, and 21 sets between qualifying and the race.

***Allocations for the debuting Michelin Pilot Sport Pro GT H1 compound in the GTD Pro and GTD ranks, however, is split between six sets at the Roar and 25 sets for the Rolex 24 event, with each car’s qualifying set of tires allowed to be carried over to the Rolex 24.

***As previously confirmed, Michelin’s SLT, SHT and MHT compounds for the GTP class have been renamed to soft, medium and hard, respectively, to follow the nomenclature used in the FIA World Endurance Championship for the same compounds.

***Proton Competition’s Ford Mustang GT3, which has been a late addition to the full-season WeatherTech Championship grid, was one of the team’s allocated WEC chassis according to Multimatic’s Larry Holt, who anticipates the German squad receiving two new chassis for its LMGT3 campaign that begins in Qatar in March.

***Holt told Sportscar365 that Multimatic staff delivered the car to the Christian Ried-owned team by literally pushing it down the streets of Mooresville, N.C., with Proton’s U.S. outpost located down the street from the Multimatic’s Mustang GT3 assembly and factory race team shop.

***The Heart of Racing has still not determined who will partner the newly Gold-rated Roman De Angelis in the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo for the WeatherTech Sprint Cup races this year, with Silver-rated Zach Robichon currently only confirmed for the Michelin Endurance Cup races in the GTD entry.

***Robichon told Sportscar365 that he’s only able to do two of the five Sprint Cup rounds due to clashing WEC races, where he’s part of Proton’s Ford LMGT3 effort.

***Heart of Racing is facing a similar WEC clash situation with Alex Riberas, who is confirmed for a full season GTD Pro effort alongside Ross Gunn but is also expected to return to WEC competition in the team’s Aston.

***Former CORE autosport and Meyer Shank Racing engineer Gary Davies has joined TF Sport as its new technical director as part of the team’s switch to Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Davies was brought into MSR to replace Ryan McCarthy, who was suspended by IMSA following the team’s Rolex 24 cheating scandal.

***Of note, McCarthy has found work in the Asian Le Mans Series with LMP2 squad Nielsen Racing.

***Chip Ganassi Racing WEC team manager Stephen Mitas is on-site supporting the team’s solo Cadillac V-Series.R, despite the second car not being present, as was the case last year.

***A number of NTT IndyCar Series drivers will travel to the Homestead-Miami Speedway in the days after the Roar to take part in a test on Jan. 22-24, including Marcus Ericsson, Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Romain Grosjean, Tom Blomqvist, Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood.

***Porsche Penske Motorsport driver Josef Newgarden is taking part in the first day of the test before traveling to Michigan on Tuesday to receive his ‘Baby Borg’ Trophy for winning last year’s Indianapolis 500.

Davey Euwema contributed to this report

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