DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Neel Jani and the Rebellion Racing team have seemed virtually unstoppable through the first two days of the Roar Before The Rolex 24 open test weekend at Daytona Int’l Speedway, and that could be scary for the rest of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship field.
Jani, who held the fastest two laps of the day on Friday and backed up the performance by posting the fastest lap of daylight conditions during second-round practice on Saturday, kept the No. 13 ORECA 07 LM P2 on top of the Prototype class and overall speed charts with a lap of 1:38.944.
The time, turned on the car’s eighth trip around the 3.564-mile DIS road course, was the fastest lap of the weekend to-date.
In total, Rebellion completed 22 laps in the nighttime session, with Jani’s co-driver Nick Heidfeld completing the session for the Swiss team as they look for their first-career Rolex 24 victory in the 55th running of the twice-around-the-clock endurance classic, set for Jan. 28-29.
Sébastien Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin complete the four-driver Rebellion roster for the Rolex 24.
DragonSpeed’s No. 81 ORECA 07 LM P2 was second-fastest in the session, with Nicolas Lapierre a half-second off the Rebellion’s best lap after posting a time of 1:39.461.
Mazda’s No. 55 DPi (Tristan Nunez, 1:39.612), the Visit Florida Racing No. 90 Multimatic/Riley (Rene Rast, 1:39.903) and the defending champion Action Express Racing No. 31 Whelen Cadillac DPi (Mike Conway, 1:40.023) completed the top five cars on speed.
The No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 was quickest among five Prototype Challenge cars testing during the Roar, with 2016 Pro Mazda title runner-up Pato O’Ward setting the mark to beat at 1:43.119.
O’Ward, 17, will share the car with Kyle Masson, Clark Toppe and James French during the Rolex 24.
Andy Priaulx led the GT Le Mans class in the No. 69 Ford GT, posting a top time of 1:44.785 in the car shared by Tony Kanaan and Harry Tincknell.
However, the top time of the day in GTLM was turned by Priaulx’s teammate Scott Dixon, who posted a time of 1:44.558 at the wheel of the No. 67 Ford GT on Saturday morning.
And for the GT Daytona contingent under the lights, it was the No. 29 Audi R8 LMS GT3 for German team Montaplast by Land-Motorsport that topped the speed charts, with Christopher Mies posting the leading time of 1:47.723.
Mies will co-drive the Audi with Connor De Phillippi, Jules Gounon and Jeffrey Schmidt on Rolex 24 race day.
Testing concludes Sunday, with sessions from 9 a.m. until 3:45 p.m.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
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