Porsche Locks Out Top Three as Roar Testing Concludes

Porsche concluded Roar Before the Rolex 24 testing at Daytona International Speedway with a lockout of the top three places, as Felipe Nasr ended up with the top time.

Nasr’s benchmark time of 1:36.327 aboard the No. 7 Porsche 963 was set in the very first session of the Roar on Friday morning in cool, overcast conditions, along with the second- and third-fastest times of the test, set by Nico Pino in the JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche and Laurens Vanthoor in the second of the Penske Porsches.

Pino was just 0.004 seconds shy of Nasr’s benchmark in the 2025-spec JDC Porsche, while Vanthoor was 0.108 seconds shy of the top spot in the No. 6 car.

Best of the rest behind the three Porsches was the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R in which Filipe Albuquerque paced the fourth session on Saturday afternoon with a best time of 1:36.731, 0.404 seconds off the pace.

Sheldon van der Linde slotted the best of the BMW M Hybrid V8s, the No. 24 car, into fifth courtesy of his session-topping effort on Friday afternoon.

The second of the WTR Cadillacs, the No. 40, was sixth in the hands of Louis Deletraz ahead of the No. 31 Action Express Racing car of Earl Bamber and the second of the Team WRT-run BMWs, the No. 25 car of Marco Wittmann.

Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s pair of ARX-06s completed the top ten, with Tom Blomqvist’s best lap aboard the No. 60 car coming in 0.968 seconds behind Nasr.

The solo Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie, which is making its Rolex 24 debut, rounded out the 11-car GTP order with a best lap 1.202 seconds off the pace.

In LMP2, Charles Milesi set the fastest time of the weekend of 1:38.935 aboard the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson, which again came in the first session.

Ben Hanley’s session-topping effort on Friday afternoon in the No. 2 United Autosports Oreca was enough for second overall, two tenths down on Milesi, and one thousandth of a second clear of Pietro Fittipaldi in the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports car.

Rounding out the top five in class were Tom Dillmann in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca and Jon Field for the returning Intersport Racing team.

Across the two GTD classes, the fastest time was recorded by Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Pumpelly’s best time in the opening session, a 1:47.304, was enough to beat the No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3 of Joey Hand by 0.117 seconds.

Third in class, and also quicker than any GTD Pro car, was the No. 16 Myers Riley Mustang of Felipe Fraga, who was 0.149 seconds behind Pumpelly.

FIA Bronze-rated Kenny Habul was a surprise pacesetter in GTD Pro aboard the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, his best lap of 1:47.530 coming on Sunday morning.

That effort put the No. 75 car 0.115 seconds clear of Maxime Martin’s No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, and 0.189 seconds ahead of the third-quickest car in class, the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Sandy Mitchell.

Hyett Fastest in Rain-Impacted Bronze Session

In the final test session of the roar on Sunday afternoon open only to FIA Bronze-rated drivers, which took place on a wet-but-drying track, PJ Hyett set the fastest time aboard the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca LMP2, a 1:40.614.

Almost immediately after, Hyett suffered a spin at Turn 1 on the still-damp track, causing a red flag with four minutes left on the clock of the 90-minute session.

Jon Field was second-fastest for Intersport, 0.371 seconds behind Hyett, while Chris Cumming was third-fastest for Pratt Miller Motorsports.

Among the GTD cars in action, Inception Racing’s Brendan Iribe was fastest on a 1:50.019 in his No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo to go six tenths of a second quicker than Ryan Hardwick in the No. 912 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

The final red flag caused by Hyett was one of two stoppages during the session, with Georgios Kolovos suffering a crash at Turn 3 with 17 minutes left on the clock.

RESULTS: Test Session 7