Tandy Quickest in First Roar Session

Nick Tandy put Porsche Penske Motorsport on top in the first test session for the Roar Before the Rolex 24 on Friday.

The British driver posted a best time of 1:35.617 aboard the No. 6 Porsche 963 early on in the 90-minute session to head up the two BMW M Hybrid V8s.

Augusto Farfus left it late to set the second-best time of 1:35.652, falling just 0.035 seconds short of Tandy’s benchmark, in the No. 24 BMW, while Nick Yelloly was third in the sister No. 25 car, a further tenth of a second behind.

Cadillac’s pair of V-Series.Rs filled out fourth and fifth places with the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing car of IndyCar champion Alex Palou in fourth ahead of Jack Aitken aboard the No. 31 Action Express Racing example.

The two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s were next up in sixth and seventh, with Colton Herta setting the best time for the newly-expanded squad in the No. 40 car.

Porsche’s second factory entry, the No. 7 car, was only eighth-fastest in the hands of Felipe Nasr, 0.611 seconds off the pace, followed by the JDC-Miller MotorSports car of Richard Westbrook.

The remaining GTP entry, the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche, only set three laps in the final minutes of the session, none of which were at a representative pace.

Paul di Resta topped the LMP2 class in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson with a best time of 1:39.916.

The Tower Motorsports car of Ferdinand Habsburg was second, only 0.031 seconds behind, while Nicklas Nielsen was third in the No. 88 AF Corse entry.

Gradient Racing’s Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 was the fastest GTD car across both classes, as Katherine Legge set the pace in the No. 66 car with a 1:46.289 lap time.

Leading the GTD Pro class was the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 with a best time of 1:46.918 set by Matteo Cressoni.

Andrea Caldarelli made it a Lamborghini 1-2 in the GTD Pro class in the No. 19 car, followed by Daniel Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 and Frederic Vervisch aboard the best of the new Ford Mustang GT3s, the No. 65 car.

Nico Varrone was second-best of the regular GTD runners in the No. 17 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R, followed by Antonio Fuoco in the No. 47 Cetilar Ferrari.

The session was interrupted by two red flags, the first after 26 minutes for debris at Turn 4 and the second for an off for the High Class Racing LMP2 car with a little over 20 minutes remaining.

The second Roar session is slated to begin at 4.15 p. m. ET.

RESULTS: Session 1