MSR’s Braun Quickest in Opening Session at Roar

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Colin Braun led the way in the opening session at the Roar Before the Rolex 24.

Braun reeled off a quick lap of 1:35.635 to edge out the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr by 0.141 seconds in the 90-minute session at Daytona International Speedway.

Ricky Taylor made it two Acuras in the top three, thanks to a 1:35.803 lap in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport entry, which was just 0.005 seconds quicker than Nick Yelloly in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL entry.

The No. 6 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet completed the top-five.

The three Cadillac V-LMDh cars brought up the rear of the nine-car GTP class field, with the No. 31 Action Express entry only completing four laps in the hands of Pipo Derani, ending the session 58th quickest overall.

LMP2 was led by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Alex Quinn, who recorded a 1:39.167 lap time that was nearly two-tenths clear of Oliver Jarvis’ Era Motorsports entry in second.

Cameron Shields was quickest in LMP3 in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan, meanwhile.

Aston Martin Vantage GT3s went 1-2-3 in the production-based ranks, led by the No. 44 Magnus Racing entry of Andy Lally.

Lally’s 1:47.004 lap in his GTD class Aston was 0.060 seconds quicker than Aston Martin factory driver Ross Gunn, who paced GTD Pro in the No. 23 The Heart of Racing entry.

Owen Trinkler was second in GTD Pro in the No. 64 Team TGM Aston, meanwhile.

The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth was best of the rest, placing third in GTD Pro, followed by the GTD class No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 of Kyle Marcelli.

The session saw three red flags, the first two for LMP3 stoppages by the No. 17 AWA Duqueine D08 Nissan and No. 74 Riley Ligier, respectively, followed by the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Jordan Taylor coming to a halt on the apron of NASCAR Turn 3.

The second and final WeatherTech Championship session of the day gets underway at 4:15 p.m. ET and runs through 6 p.m.

RESULTS: Session 1

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