Dry weather greeted the teams of the Rolex Series for the second day of testing at the ‘Roar Before the 24’ at Daytona International Speedway.
Like the opening day the second session ended with defending Rolex 24 at Daytona winners Michael Shank Racing on top of the timesheets. However, after A.J. Allmendinger topped the day one times it was Michael Valiante in the team’s #6 Ford-Riley who led the afternoon session with a best lap of 1:42.160.
While the Canadian – confirmed as part of Michael Shank Racing team for Rolex 24 during the day – led the second session of the day the best time of the day overall was set by Dane Cameron in the morning session, steering the Team Sahlen’s BMW-Riley around the Daytona road course in 1:42.101.
Allmendinger returned the #60 car to the top of the times for the day’s third session, though he too was lap faster than Cameron’s morning time.
Again, the testing times were dominated by the Riley chassis, occupying the top five places in the morning session and the top five of the afternoon sessions as both Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates cars, the Starworks Motorsport #2 and the #60 Michael Shank Racing entry finished both sessions high on the timesheets.
The fastest lap of the teams running Chevrolet Corvette DP was, again, that of Spirit of Daytona Racing, who set a time of 1:42.709 in the morning session. That time earned the #90 team sixth fastest in the session, but the best placed Corvette of the day was the #5 Action Express Racing entry that ended the third session of the day fourth fastest with a lap time nine-hundredths slower than Spirit of Daytona’s.
In GT too the fastest times of the day came in the day’s first session Porsche works driver Patrick Long leading the way for Park Place Motorsports with a best time of 1:48.569.
Again the Porsche teams in the GT class were the class of the field, dominating both sessions, Park Place Motorsport third fastest in the afternoon behind Konrad Motorsport and Magnus Racing, though with a best lap of 1:49.128 Andy Lally was unable to depose Long for the day’s best time.
Having been second fastest in both of the first two sessions of the day Konrad Motorsport led the way in the third session of the day thanks to Michael Christensen, though his lap of 1:49.42o made no impression on the day’s best.
Napleton Racing added the best time (1:56.222 by Shane Lewis in the third session) of the day, and the in all of the day’s sessions to the day one topping performance.
The testing at Daytona continues with a night test session this evening.
