Mazda Team Joest leaves the Roar with the absolute benchmark

The last practice session of the Roar Before the Rolex 24, general rehearsal of theIMSA before the season kicks off 24 Hours of Daytona (January 26-27), will not have upset the hierarchy established during the qualifying session held yesterday in Florida.

Oliver Jarvis (Mazda RT24-P n°77 – Mazda Team Joest) had then lowered the reference to 1'33″398, battant officieusement le vieux record de la piste (1’33″875, par PJ Jones sur une Toyota Eagle MKIII il y a 26 ans). Un chrono qui ne sera plus approché dans l’ultime roulage, où Loïc duval (Nissan DPi n°54 – CORE Autosport) was the fastest in 1’35”176.

“It was a total joy to drive the car,” admits Jarvis. We were in qualifying specification. I don't think many of our competitors can say the same thing, but in this configuration with little fuel, the feeling was incredible. You could really push the car to the limits and that's what we drivers live for: to feel like you're getting everything out of the car. »

However, we must remain cautious about the real performance of the peloton, and the timesheet for this Roar 2019 may not be identical in around twenty days at the time of the double turn of the clock in Florida.

In LM P2, we must highlight the performance of Gabriel Aubry, new recruit from PR1 Mathiasen for this American campaign, and who has regularly risen to the forefront of the category, now governed by a Balance of Performance different from that of the DPi . The Frenchman completed his best lap in 1'35″930.

Corvette leaves Daytona with fastest time in GTLM, Jan Magnussen placing the #7 C3.R in the lead in 1'42″651. The American brand has always played at the front on this Roar, alternating with the Ford GTs of Chip Ganassi Racing (where Sébastien Bourdais était de la partie) et les deux Porsche 911 RSR officielles des équipages Jaminet – Bamber et Pilet – Makowiecki – Tandy.

The GTD competitors had left the track to the other categories at the end of the day on Saturday, only two days having been allocated to the GT3 for this Roar.

Ranking Trials 7