Daytona 24h Roar: Palou’s Ganassi Cadillac fastest in IMSA night test

Palou lapped the 3.56-mile road course in 1m35.705s in Chip Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac V-Series.R GTP entry in cold track conditions for this two-hour session under the floodlights.

Renger van der Zande set the early pace in the #01 CGR Caddy, lapping in 1m35.895s, which was a tenth clear of Filipe Albuquerque’s #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 after 15 minutes.

Kevin Estre’s factory-entered, Penske-run Porsche lost a wheel and trundled back to the pits. With four attached once more, he rejoined the track and leapt to second, 0.089s down on van der Zande at 1m35.984s.

As the session entered its second hour, Connor De Phillippi’s #25 RLL-run BMW M Hybrid V8 jumped to second.

But just as the leading Caddy’s position came under threat, Ganassi’s IndyCar gun Palou reset the bar with a lap of 1m35.705s – putting it over a quarter of a second clear from the #25 BMW, #6 Porsche and #10 Acura.

“I just love driving at night with the traffic in this amazing car,” said Palou. “We turned a bunch of laps and learned a lot as we prepare for tomorrow’s qualifying and also for next week’s race.

“We finished up on top with the night session today, so I’m pretty happy about that.”

Jack Aitken placed fifth in Action Express Racing’s Cadillac from Josef Newgarden’s #7 Penske Porsche, Jesse Krohn (#24 BMW) and Colton Herta (#40 WTR Acura). Gianmaria Bruni (Proton Porsche) and Tijmen van der Helm (JDC-Miller Porsche) rounded out the GTP runners.

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

#34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3: Manny Franco, Albert Costa Balboa, Alessandro Balzan, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli, #20 MDK by High Class Racing ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Dennis Andersen, Seth Lucas, Laurents Hoerr, Scott Huffaker

Huffaker fastest in LMP2
Mikkel Jensen held the top spot in his #11 TDS-run ORECA on 1m38.995s for a while, before Clement Novalak took over P1 in the #52 Inter Europol/PR1 Mathiasen variant on 1m38.961s.

IndyCar star Felix Rosenqvist then entered the conversation, topping the class by setting 1m38.897s just before the hour mark in his #22 United Autosports ORECA.

Paul-Loup Chatin grabbed second in the #99 AO Racing ORECA, just 0.005s down on Rosenqvist, but then Matthieu Vaxiviere topped them all in the Richard Mille-entered AF Corse ORECA.

Scott Huffaker did likewise in the #20 MDK by High Class Racing ORECA with a remarkable 1m38.270s to beat Vaxiviere by 0.394s.

Charles Milesi improved on Jensen’s time in the #11 TDS ORECA to take third, while Felipe Fraga made a late improvement to take fourth in his #74 Riley-run entry.

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

#47 CETILAR Racing Ferrari 296 GT3: Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto, Antonio Fuoco, Eddie Cheever

Ferrari beats McLaren in GTD
After hitting trouble in the previous session, the Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S bounced back by setting the early GTD pace in Marvin Kirchhofer’s hands with a fastest lap of 1m45.980s, just ahead of the fellow Pro class entry of Dirk Muller (Multimatic Ford Mustang) by 0.027s.

Michelle Gatting led the pro-am GTD category in her Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan in the early stages.

In the second hour, Eddie Cheever III – son of the ex-F1 driver and Indy 500 winner – emerged as a surprise pacesetter in Cetilar’s pro-am Ferrari 296 with a lap of 1m45.739s.

Kirchhofer had to settle for the fastest Pro category time, ahead of Muller. Jan Heylen was fourth in his #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, the car that is the subject of the Brad Pitt Formula 1 movie filming.