Proton Porsche Suffers Crash in Sixth Roar Session

Proton Competition’s customer Porsche 963 was damaged in a crash immediately before qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, as Neel Jani suffered an off at Turn 5.

Jani had just set the fastest time in the early stages of the 25-minute sixth test session of the Roar Before the 24 on Sunday afternoon when he lost control of the No. 5 car at Turn 5 while trying to negotiate the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais, who was on an out lap.

Despite suffering front-end damage in the crash, Jani was able to get the stricken Proton car going again and return to the pits unaided. Soon after, the Proton car was taken behind the wall, casting its participation in qualifying into doubt.

Bourdais went on to set the fastest lap of the GTP-only session, setting a new unofficial lap record of 1:33.236 – more than four tenths of a second up on the 2019 pole record set by Oliver Jarvis in a Mazda DPi.

Both the second and third-placed cars were also underneath Jarvis’s record, with Felipe Nasr second in the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963, 0.279 seconds off the pace, followed by Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac.

BMW’s No. 25 M Hybrid V8 was fourth in the hands of Connor De Philippi, while Louis Deletraz was fifth in the quicker of the two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s, the No. 40 car.

Qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona begins at 1.55 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Session 6