Van der Zande Paces Opening Practice at Daytona

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Renger van der Zande led the way in opening practice for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The Dutchman took the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R to a best lap of 1:34.649, edging out the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Mike Conway in the session.

Harry Tincknell was third quickest in the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P followed by the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 of Ricky Taylor and Loic Duval’s JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac.

LMP2 was paced by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Nico Lapierre, while Jeroen Bleekemolen was quickest in LMP3 in the No. 91 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

Tommy Milner (No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R) and Billy Johnson (No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo) paced the GT Le Mans and GT Daytona classes, respectively.

The 60-minute session saw an early red flag for the No. 111 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Mirko Bortolotti, who stopped on track in NASCAR Turn 1.

It was followed by an accident by the No. 51 RWR-Eurasia Ligier JS P217 Gibson of Cody Ware, who went off in the Bus Stop with 12 minutes left on the clock.

A spin by Matt McMurry in the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier LMP3 came near the end of the session but did not bring out another red.

Practice 2 gets underway at 3:20 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 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