Mazda’s Jarvis Sets New Roar Benchmark on Saturday Night

Oliver Jarvis shaved almost a second off the previous fastest lap of the Roar Before the Rolex 24 to lead Saturday’s evening test session under the lights at Daytona.

The Team Joest driver, who shares the No. 77 Mazda RT24-P with Tristan Nunez and Olivier Pla, turned in a time of 1:34.753 to lead the hourlong run.

Jarvis’ flyer put him 0.445 seconds clear of his teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay who slotted the sister No. 55 Mazda DPi – which was the previous overall pace-setter – into second with seven minutes left on the clock.

Cadillac and Acura DPi entries ended up third and fourth in the fifth session of the three-day test.

Five-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon set a time of 1:35.648 behind the wheel of the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R while Ricky Taylor posted a 1:35.841 best for Acura Team Penske.

Matheus Leist completed the overall top five in the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi.

While Mazda claimed a 1-2 in the DPi timing, Porsche did the same in GT Le Mans as Laurens Vanthoor and Frederic Makowiecki set the German manufacturer out front.

Vanthoor’s 1:43.513 in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR became the new best-in-class of the entire test, while Makowiecki was just 0.080 seconds behind his teammate.

Both of these efforts displaced the weekend’s previous best which came courtesy of BMW driver Connor de Phillippi on Saturday morning.

Close behind the Porsches was Daniel Serra who registered a time of 1:43.619 in the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans and Motul Petit Le Mans winner Risi Competizione.

Corvette Racing’s new Chevrolet Corvette C8.R made further improvements in session five as Marcel Fassler took the car’s best time down to a 1:44.461.

Lamborghini went first, second and third in GT Daytona as two GRT Grasser Racing-prepared Huracan GT3 Evos led the way from Paul Miller Racing’s car.

Franck Perera lowered the class bar with a 1:46.713 tour in the No. 11 GRT machine while Andy Lally ran second-quickest and Andrea Caldarelli third.

The No. 98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 appeared on track for the first time after missing the first four sessions as a result of Paul Dalla Lana’s skiing injury which has ruled the Canadian out of this month’s race.

Ross Gunn completed 12 laps before handing over to Mathias Lauda who turned five laps and Pedro Lamy who was in for seven laps.

Harrison Newey came away with the fastest LMP2 run of the day and the weekend so far, with the Englishman’s 1:37.372 for DragonSpeed beating Nicolas Lapierre in the Starworks-run Tower Motorsports Oreca by just under half a second.

Saturday’s third and final collective test was interrupted by one red flag lasting seven and a half minutes.

This was for the retrieval of the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo which Shinya Michimi spun at Turn 7 on the infield.

Two further sessions involving all four IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes are bookmarked for Sunday with the first starting at 10:30 a.m. ET.

RESULTS: Roar Session 5