Kamui Kobayashi puts Wayne Taylor Racing in the lead at the Roar

No less than 150 drivers showed up yesterday on the Daytona track (Florida) for the first day of testing for the Roar Before the Rolex 24, dress rehearsal before the start of the 2019 season ofIMSA, scheduled for January 26 to 27 as part of the double clock tour traditionally opening the American campaign.

And if Mazda Team Joest had struck first in the first session, with Oliver Jarvis placing the #24 RT77-P, shared with René Rast, Timo Berhnard and Tristan Nunez at the front, it was finally Kamui Kobayashi, aligned with the Cadillac DPi-VR n°10 – Wayne Taylor Racing with Fernando Alonso, Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande, who set the best time of the day.

The pilot of the Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC has buckled his reference lap in 1'36″596 in the second session, beating the two Mazda RT24-P n°55 (Bomarito – Pla – Tincknell) and n°77 by 0″008 and 0″242.

Juncos Racing is in fourth place with the No. 50 Cadillac DPi-VR of Binder – Owen – Canapino – Kaiser, and precedes the first DPi of Acura Team Penske, flanked by the No. 7 and entrusted to the trio Castroneves – Ricky Taylor – Red.

Followed by the two Cadillac DPi-VR n°31 (Curran – Nasr – Derani) and n°5 (Barbosa – Fittipaldi – Conway – Albuquerque) from Action Express Racing and the Nissan DPi – CORE Autosport from Loïc duval, Romain Dumas, Jon Bennett and Colin Braun. Tristan Vautier (Cadillac DPi-VR n°85 – JDC-Miller) and simon pagenaud (Acura Team Penske) also enter the top 10.

In GTLM, Porsche avait dominé la première séance avec les deux 911 RSR n°911 (Pilet – Makowiecki – Tandy) et n°912 (Jaminet – Bamber) (Laurens Vanthoor étant excusé sur la n°912 pour cause de naissance de son enfant), mais c’est bien Ferrari and the Risi Competizione which displayed the best cumulative performance.

Davide Rigon (author of the best time in 1'44″718) and Miguel Molina precede the No. 67 Ford GT of Dixon – Briscoe – Westbrook and the No. 7 Corvette C3.R of Magnussen – Garcia – Rockenfeller.

The GTD category saw the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°33 – Riley Motorsports of Bleekemolen – Fraga – Stolz – Keating was the fastest during the two sessions, the best time going to Jeroen Bleekemolen in 1’46″452.

Ranking Trials 1

Ranking Trials 2