Christian Fittipaldi set the fastest time throughout the Roar Before the Rolex test weekend for Action Express Racing.
Fittipaldi’s time of 1:38.610 seconds came at the start of the weekend in Friday morning’s opening session, leading a group of Daytona Prototypes that occupied five of the top six speeds over all three days.
“We applied everything that we learned in the sessions we had prior to today – once in November and twice in the beginning of December,” said Fittipaldi, who drove with full-season teammate Joao Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais. “The car felt pretty good. I think that the track conditions were a little bit strange (with the changing weather). We need to make the best of it because when it comes down to race time, maybe we are going to have exactly the same stuff out there. I have raced here before where we have had even colder weather. So we pretty much need to be prepared for all kinds of stuff out there.”
Fellow Corvette DP driver Richard Westbrook set the second fastest time of the weekend in the Spirit of Daytona machine, clocking a time of 1:38.989 in the car he shares with Michael Valiante and Mike Rockenfeller.
Chevrolet are on good form in American Sports Car racing, with two consecutive Grand-Am Rolex Series manufacturers’ titles currently under its belt. Four teams will fly the Chevrolet banner in the new TUDOR United SportsCar Series Prototype Class – 2013 DP Champions Wayne Taylor Racing, Action Express, Spirit of Daytona and GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing.
“It has been a very productive three days at Daytona for the Corvette Daytona Prototype teams in preparation for the Rolex 24 Hour race,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet TUDOR Championship Daytona Prototype Program Manager. “All of the teams had the opportunity to work with the latest technical regulations IMSA has put in place thus far for the class. Every driver for each of the teams was able to get ample seat time throughout the three-day test.”
