Daytona 24h Roar: Porsche tops GTP and GTD in fourth IMSA session

Hanson lapped the 3.56-mile road course in 1m35.216s in his GTP class JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 in perfect track conditions for this one-hour session.

Brendon Hartley was quickest out of the blocks, the ex-F1 driver and three-time Le Mans winner setting a benchmark of 1m36.197s in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 in the early minutes of the session.

He was soon topped by Connor De Phillippi’s #25 RLL-run BMW M Hybrid V8 with a lap of 1m35.468s, which was 0.038s quicker than Tom Blomqvist in Action Express Racing’s Cadillac V-Series.R managed around the same time.

Neel Jani then took over at the top of the times with a 1m35.329s in Proton Competition’s Porsche 963, set during a short run that was likely a qualifying simulation ahead of tomorrow.

Quick times continued thick and fast after the halfway point, with De Phillippi improving to 1m35.399s, 0.070s away from Jani, and then matched his time to the thousandth of a second at 1m35.329s.

But Hanson unleashed the fastest time of the Roar so far with 20 minutes to go in JDC-Miller’s 963, his 1m35.216s pipping Pipo Derani’s best time from Friday in the AXR Caddy by 0.001s.

Sebastien Bourdais was fourth quickest in Chip Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac V-Series.R, ahead of Blomqvist.

Augusto Farfus was sixth in the second BMW from Hartley, Felipe Nasr (Penske Porsche), Jenson Button (WTR Acura) and Kevin Estre (Penske Porsche).

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

#2 United Autosports ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Ben Keating, Nico Pino, Ben Hanley, Patricio O’Ward

United Autosports grabs 1-2 in LMP2
Joao Barbosa led the way early on in the sole Ligier in an ORECA-packed LMP2 class for Sean Creech Motorsport, just head of Ben Keating’s #2 United Autosports machine.

Keating turned the tables by improving his time to a category-topping 1m39.047s, 0.047s faster than Paul di Resta in United’s #22 entry. They were three tenths up on Mikkel Jensen’s #11 TDS-run ORECA, who lapped in 1m39.414s.

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

#86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R: Kerong Li, Anders Fjordbach, Larry ten Voorde, Klaus Bachler, #20 MDK by High Class Racing ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Dennis Andersen, Seth Lucas, Laurents Hoerr, Scott Huffaker

Porsche sweeps to 1-2-3 in GTD
Frederic Makowiecki set the early pace in his #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, the car that is the subject of the Brad Pitt Formula 1 movie filming. His early lap was soon beaten by Klaus Bachler in the #86 MDK Motorsports 911, with 1m46.229s to Mako’s 1m45.999s.

Trent Hindman (Kellymoss with Riley) jumped up to second in the closing minutes, producing a 1m45.990s to make it a Porsche 1-2-3 – a vast improvement on last year’s disastrous showing here for the marque.

Mario Farnbacher was best of the rest for Aston Martin, his #23 Heart of Racing-run Vantage the best placed GTD Pro entry. Dennis Olsen led the US muscle cars in his Proton-run Ford Mustang GT3 in fifth, ahead of Mike Rockenfeller’s Multimatic version.

Former IndyCar star James Hinchcliffe suffered an issue on his first flying lap with his Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S and was stranded out on the track’s backstretch. But he rejoined the session later, finishing 42nd overall after getting just eight laps in.