Roar Daytona – Day 2: Cadillac makes an appearance, but Porsche maintains control

In warmer temperatures on Saturday afternoon, Filipe Albuquerque put the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R at the top of the timesheets during the fourth practice session. The Portuguese driver set a best lap of 1:36.731, giving Cadillac its first benchmark of the weekend.

However, this time was insufficient to dethrone him. Porsche across all combined sessions. Earlier in the day, Laurens Vanthoor had set a faster time with the No. 6 Team Penske Porsche 963, in 1:36.549, and remains behind Felipe Nasr in the overall standings, who on Friday set the best absolute time at the Roar in 1:36.327 at the wheel of the No. 7.

ALSO READ > Roar Daytona – Day 1: Porsche starts strong, BMW and Cadillac keep pace

Despite Porsche's statistical dominance, Cadillac is showing encouraging growth. We continue to refine the setup and our work plan, which shows we're heading in the right direction, even though there's still a lot to learn., Albuquerque explained after the session. Understanding how the car behaves when the track heats up is a priority. The car is fantastic at night, but races aren't won solely at night. This afternoon session was very important. »

In the combined standings after four sessions, Porsche placed three cars in the top three positions, with the pleasant surprise of the No. 85 JDC-Miller Porsche 963 slotting in between the two factory Team Penske entries. Behind Porsche, Cadillac, Acura, and BMW were separated by mere tenths of a second. However, the weekend proved more challenging for the Japanese manufacturer, whose No. 93 ARX-06 car experienced several technical issues.

Another blow, for Aston Martin The No. 23 Valkyrie required an engine change, preventing it from participating in the afternoon session after a promising seventh-fastest time in the morning with Ross Gunn. In LMP2, warmer conditions slowed lap times compared to Friday. Ben Hanley was nevertheless the only driver to break the 1:40 barrier, posting a time of 1:39.922 in the No. 2 United Autosports USA Oreca, ahead of the No. 11 TDS Racing entry of Mathias Beche.

Grosjean set the fastest time of the afternoon in GTD

The GT cars saw the No. 16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 dominate both the GTD and GTD PRO categories.
Felipe Fraga set the GTD benchmark in the morning (1:47.453), before Romain Grosjean does not take over in the afternoon (1:47.667).

In GTD PRO, Will Power distinguished himself behind the wheel of the Classic Mercedes for sale-AMG GT3 #75, fastest time of the day in 1:47.612. The two-time champion IndyCar (2014 and 2022) will compete in his first race at Daytona IMSA. " It's a very enjoyable car to drive. The specialists in this discipline are incredibly fast; it's very rewarding to learn alongside them. " the Australian confided.

The Roar concludes this Sunday with two final practice sessions before the start of 24 Hours of Daytona week (January 24-25).

The combined Roar Daytona standings after the first four sessions