Break Out The Brooms: Sweeps galore fill the Roar Before The 24 weekend
The Roar Before The 24 saw a slew of sweeps on the weekend in both the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge and the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, featuring the GTP class entirely (excluding the #5 Proton Competition Porsche) eclipsing the track record that was set prior by Oliver Jarvis in 2019 in the DPi Mazda.
Going about the weekend, the Cadillacs seemed to find a bit of a rhythm during practice sessions, while Porsche was able to squeeze its way onto the top of the timing boards in the GTP class.
Coming off a season championship with both team and manufacturer, Cadillac had the makings of being a group to contend with, especially with this being one of their better tracks as a unit.
Ben Keating, driver for #2 United Autosports LMP2 and for the Rolex 24, the #85 JDC-Miller entry, stated that conditions were perfect, something repeated by Pipo Derani in his post-qualifying press conference.
Derani, Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac Racing GTP, and Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche Penske GTP, were able to clock in at under 1:33.000 on the timing sheet, showing that the GTP class is going to be even quicker from its reamplified season last year.
VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Races #1 and #2
The VP Racing SportsCar Challenge kicked off its season this weekend before the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s main event of the weekend with its two opening races of the campaign.
In Race #1, Cody Ware, who returns to sportscar racing after his NASCAR incident in 2023 with his father’s team, went into to turn one of the infield roads, locking the brakes on the car and spinning out early on.
Outside of the minor fault, the race for the most part stayed clean as battles ensued throughout the grid, especially for podium spots.
The big hitter of the season opener was Luca Mars of KOHR Motorsports, who found himself in the back of the grid to start the race, methodically picked off the field one-by-one and slowly moved up the grid.
Mars would make a late race pass on Gregory Liefooghe for Stephen Cameron Racing for the race lead and take Race One.
Steven Aghakhani for MLT Motorsports was quick all weekend long and made early noise during the two brief practice sessions, translating over to the opening race as well, where Aghakhani was able to win the opener even while losing the lead in the earlier parts of the race.
In Race #2, both battles for the top spot were polar opposites compared to Saturday for the classes, with Luca Mars winning the double on the weekend for the Daytona-based team with ease, not coming with any true battles during the weekend finale.
There would be some point battles towards the middle of the field in the GSX class, but Mars never really had any true competition to contend with.
On the other hand, Aghakhani would have to fend off Cody Ware again in the opening lap, with Ware getting very aggressive towards the hairpin in the infield, but, due to contact, Ware received a post-race penalty, which resulted in him falling down the board.
Thaze Competition, which is fielding three cars amongst two series at Daytona, saw problems late in Race #2 with Marc Miller’s #37 Mercedes-AMG, resulting in the car retiring for the race.
Thaze Competition Co-Owner Faisal Ahmad explained that the “team was working on figuring out the problem” at the time of the retirement, which looked to be something to do with the lower half of the engine.
Alex Kirby in the #7 for Performance Tech Motorsports also had troubles, getting stuck in the grass, resulting in the first and only caution of the weekend for the VP races. However, it did not change any of the finishing winners, with both Mars and Aghakhani able to hold on for the sweep.
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Qualifying
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying brought nothing short of drama, most notably in the GTD classes and GTP classes.
In GTD Pro and GTD, the lone #92 Kellymoss with Riley entry with David Brule got into trouble right out of the pits, hitting the wall on cold tires, resulting in a red flag that delayed qualifying with a minute to go in the session.
IMSA had the right to use the previous practice times of the classes for qualifying if they chose, but the series tacked on an extra seven minutes of time, which allowed for a condensed but allocated session.
The big surprise came from the GTD Pro class, with the #77 “Rexy” Porsche of AO Racing taking the top spot in class, leading the field in the GTDs for the 2024 Rolex 24.
In a class that features many heavy hitters, AO Racing being at the top of the pole was a bit of a surprise given the uncertainty the team brings going up from GTD, but there is no denying the level that they can bring to the grid.
In GTD, the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus with Parker Thompson wheeling the car found great times late in the condensed session and was able to get up to third overall.
While it was short, one thing to note coming from the timing sheet is the fact that six GTD cars finished above the third-best GTD Pro of Antonio Garcia with Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller.
In LMP2, it was the pole of WEC invaders in regard to United and Inter Europol finding their way into the top two spots heading into next weekend, with no real surprises coming out of the class.
The big story, however, comes in GTP.
With Cadillac toping and breaking the track record by a mile, the qualifying for the GTPs fluctuated greatly, with BMW with Connor De Phillipi, Felipe Nasr with Porsche, and even Tijmen van der Helm for the customer JDC-Miller finding the top of the board.
Again, as mentioned, with drivers saying the track conditions were perfect, GTPs saw a great increase in time and could bring what may be the fastest Rolex 24 to date.