Kobayashi Quickest in Final Session as Roar Draws to a Close

Kamui Kobayashi put Wayne Taylor Racing’s Cadillac DPi-V.R on top during the seventh and final Roar Before the Rolex 24 test session at Daytona International Speedway.

Kobayashi set a time of 1:34.533 aborad last year’s Rolex 24 winning car, beating Mazda Team Joest driver Oliver Jarvis by 0.180 seconds after an hour of uninterrupted running.

The fastest lap across the seven collective Roar tests was a 1:33.617 turned in by Acura Team Penske’s Ricky Taylor during the first of two sessions on Sunday.

The outright quickest time of the weekend, meanwhile, was set by Mazda’s Olivier Pla in the mock qualifying session to decide pit box positions for this month’s race.

Several DPi teams elected not to run certain cars in session seven, including Team Penske which parked both of its Acura ARX-05s, as well as the Whelen Engineering Cadillac and the No. 55 Mazda.

This enabled the quickest LMP2 car to finish fourth in the overall order, courtesy of a 1:35.662 from Nico Lapierre in the Starworks-run Tower Motorsports Oreca.

The fastest LMP2 lap of the weekend was a 1:35.140 set by DragonSpeed’s Ben Hanley.

Risi Competizione Leads GTLM

Ferrari outfit Risi Competizione came away with the best GT Le Mans lap time of the whole weekend while Porsche’s Earl Bamber set the pace in the final session.

The Risi 488 GTE Evo headed up the class both in terms of the general test sessions and the 15-minute qualifying segment held on Sunday.

Daniel Serra posted a 1:42.864 flyer in the penultimate session to complement James Calado’s 1:42.685 quali marker in the Motul Petit Le Mans-winning Ferrari.

Porsche locked out the top two positions on Sunday afternoon as Bamber edged out his teammate Matt Campbell with Serra slotting into third.

Fourth-quickest was Marcel Fassler in the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

Alvaro Parente narrowly beat Andy Lally to put Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 86 Acura NSX GT3 Evo ahead of GRT Grasser’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo at the sharp end of GT Daytona.

Parente turned in a time of 1:46.155 which was enough to lead the final track outing of the weekend but not enough to eclipse the category’s absolute best time which was produced by Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini driver Bryan Sellers in session six.

RESULTS: Roar Session 7