As he did yesterday afternoon, Pipo Derani set the top time in the first of three Saturday test sessions for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams. Derani pushed the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to a best lap of 1m35.372s at Daytona International Speedway, 0.026s quicker than Richard Westbrook in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963. The No. 85 was the first of the two privateer Porsches on the time sheet, both of which bettered the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries.
In front of a large crowd for a test day a week before the race — DIS has had to stop cars entering the infield for the first time during the Roar — once again the four different GTP manufacturers were represented in the top five. Connor De Phillippi notched his third straight appearance in the top three in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL with a best lap of 1m35.680s, followed by Scott Dixon in the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R from Chip Ganassi Racing. Filipe Albuquerque was the quickest of the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti squad, posting a 1m35.939s in the No. 10 Acura ARX-06. The top eight GTP cars were within a second.
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Tommy Milner was the quickest of the GT runners, putting the No. 4 GTD PRO Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R on top with a 1m45.844s lap, the fastest GT time of the weekend so far. He was followed by a trio of GTD entries, led by Kyle Marcelli as the No. 45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 made its first appearance at the top of the class with a 1m45.986s lap. Thomas Preining followed by 0.144s in the No. 43 Andretti Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Julien Andlauer next in the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche at 1m46.323s. Dennis Olsen (No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3) and Charlie Eastwood (No. 17 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R) completed the top five in GTD.
Harry Tincknell was second in GTD PRO in the No 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 with a best time of 1m46.357s. Michael Christensen was third, 0.045s off Tincknell’s best, in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche. Jack Hawksworth, doing double duty in Michelin Pilot Challenge, was fourth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, followed by Frederic Verviisch in the No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang.
Nicklas Nielsen led LMP2 for AF Corse, posting a 1m38.576s in the No. 88 ORECA. Charles Milesi got within 0.043s of Nielsen in the No. 11 TDS Racing car, with Malthe Jakobsen third in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry. James Allen (No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA) and Tom Dillmann (No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports) filled out the top five.
UP NEXT: A one-hour test session at 3:10 p.m ET.