Whelen Engineering Cadillac leads final practice for Rolex 24
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Richard S. James | January 26, 2024 12:58 PM ET
The final practice session for the Rolex 24 At Daytona is in the books, providing teams their last opportunity to check systems and setups and practice pit stops. If all has gone well, it’s time for a final look at the cars, some cleaning, and then putting the cars away safely for the night. Most cars saw limited running, completing 20 or fewer laps.Jack Aitken, in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R that will lead the field to the green flag at 1:40 p.m ET tomorrow, set the fastest time in the session, a 1m35.983s lap, 0.239s better than Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8.
Mikkell Jensen led LMP2 in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA with a time of 1m39.078s. Matthieu Vaxiviere in the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA and Ryan Dalziel in the No. 18 Era Motorsports ORECA set identical best times, 0.707s shy of Vaxiviere.
Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris continued to show their potential strength in GTD and GTD PRO, led by Thomas Preining in the GTD-class No. 43 Andretti Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R at 1m47.072s. Matteo Cairoli was just shy of Preining’s time to lead GTD PRO in the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2. Daniel Serra followed in the GTD PRO No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, with second-place GTD runner Jens Klingmann in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.
While for most teams it was a routine session, one team that was not so fortunate is Sean Creech Motorsport. Lance Willsey lost the car and hit the wall in Turn 2A, incurring heavy damage to the No. 33 Ligier and bringing out a red flag. Not only will the crew have a long afternoon ahead, but there is a question mark over the availability of sufficient spares because SCM is the only team running the Ligier in LMP2.
Two teams skipped the session entirely. AWA kept its Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in the garage, as did Heart of Racing with its Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos.
UP NEXT: The start of the 62nd Rolex 24 At Daytona coming at 1:40pm ET. The first hour of the race will be live.