The first IMSA-sanctioned test prior to the 2025 season – and only until the Roar Before the 24 – is complete. While there are never any clear-cut answers in testing because teams are working through different testing agendas and aren’t always showing off their full potential, some patterns emerge.
First, Lamborghini Iron Lynx has made some strides, indicating that the pace the SC63 showed at Indianapolis wasn’t a fluke. The car didn’t race at Daytona last year, as Lamborghini chose Sebring as its competition debut, but it did show some potential at last year’s Daytona test. This time, Romain Grosjean set the fastest GTP time of the weekend, a 1m35.611s lap (134.043mph). Andrea Caldarelli backed that up with the fourth-fastest time of the test.
Acura Meyer Shank Racing seems set to pick up where it left off, with two of its drivers setting the third- and fourth-quickest times. New to the team, former BMW shoe Nick Yelloly in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 set a time 0.097s off Grosjean’s best and 0.197s better than teammate Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60.
“Working with the guys and girls here and at the shop and with MSR has been fantastic, and obviously with HRC,” said Yelloly following the test. “We’ve been ticking off everything we can do on our program. Working through, sticking to our own program and making sure we constructively test everything we need to before we come back here in January. So, everything’s gone smoothly.
“Lap time-wise, it’s always nice to see yourself further at the front, but it doesn’t matter until we go racing, to be honest. But, yeah it’s been fantastic. I think Mike [Shank] runs a great operation here, as do HRC and its friendly faces all the time. Nothing’s too big of a job. Everyone gets their heads down and works their tails off to chase our end goal, which is obviously to be at the front.”
From fifth to ninth, it was all BMW M Team RLL. Running the same four drivers in both cars, three of the drivers were accounted for in those five places. Marco Wittman was the quickest of the bunch in the No. 25 BWM M Hybrid V8.
Jack Aitken was the quickest of the Cadillac drivers – no surprise given his experience with the V-Series.R and Whelen Cadillac Racing – in 10th overall while Cadillac tested some updates and Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing worked to get up to speed with its new cars. CWTR’s Jordan Taylor was one of those getting familiar with the V-Series.R.
“It has been great coming back to Cadillac and driving the new V-Series.R,” he declared. “It definitely has its own driving style-wise: the way it feels, the way you attack corners, the set-up changes are different, the terminology is all different. It has been a lot to learn but nice to get a head start here in November, before the year ends. We should get a good head start from this test and go into the off-season with more ideas to come back to the Roar with.
“We are all excited to start the season next year. I think there is a lot of expectation on big results. Obviously, last year, we had two wins and the team would definitely like to increase that and I think we will have a great chance to with Cadillac.”
The quickest of the Porsche runners was JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Gianmaria Bruni, 14th overall and leading the Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963s. All three 963s were armed with updates for next season.
Ford Multimatic Motorsports sextet of drivers dominated the GTD PRO proceedings. The Mustang GT3 held the top five and six of the top seven times, interrupted only by
Klaus Bachler in the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R in fifth. Dennis Olsen held the top spot with a 1m47.822s lap (118.862mph) in the No. 65 Mustang. Olsen, who raced the Mustang for Proton Competition in WEC in 2024, will be an endurance addition for the team in 2025.
“It’s definitely really nice to be back in IMSA,” noted Olsen. “I’m getting into the groove here with Multimatic and it’s very nice. The team is very new to me, and we are working to get the two cars communicating strongly together. We’re sharing everything and working together as a team and as a group.
“We’re working on all the systems trying to prepare for the big one. Still a lot left to do, and it’s definitely challenging, but we’ll keep on working and improving,” he added.
Malthe Jakobsen set the top time in LMP2 for CrowdStrike by APR as the team prepares for its return to competition after a hiatus in the latter half of 2024. Jakobsen’s 1m38.635s was the quickest of eight LMP2 teams at the test.
Elliott Skeer was quickest among the GTD drivers testing at Daytona, as Porsche pilots took the top three spots. Skeer turned a 1m48.221s lap in the No. 120 Wright machine to better Matteo Cressoni in the Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R, as well as teammate Loek Hartog. The fourth and fifth spots were occupied by Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos; first was Andy Lally for Magnus Racing, followed by Valentin Hasse-Clot for new GTD entry van der Steur Racing.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams will embark on individual testing programs for the rest of the year before reconvening at Daytona for the Roar Before the 24 on Jan. 17.