The testing for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona came to an end yesterday with Corvette Racing finishing first. It was the third day of testing at the Daytona International Speedway for the first race of the newly formed TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. The No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R driven by Oliver Gavin was fastest with a time of 1:45.915 at 121.003 mph, but this was not without competition from the Porsche 911 RSR and the SRT Viper GTS-R.
At the end of the day, the No. 911 Porsche North America 911 RSR of Nick Tandy topped the charts running 1:45.564 at 121.405 mph, followed closely by the persuasive No. 4 Corvette C7.R and another No. 3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen which ran 1:45.792 at 121.143 mph. Other cars in this GT Le Mans class included the Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 Italia and a pair of BMW Z4 GTEs from BMW Team RLL.
In the GT Daytona class (GTD), Audi teams had it all figured out but not without constant persuasion from Porsche teams. The No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsport Audi R8 LMS led during most sessions in the 3-day test, the final session was led by Porsche with Alex Riberas driving the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing 911 GT America co-driven by Ian James and Mario Farnbacher. He posted a time of 1:48.846 at 117.744 mph.
Level 5 Motorsports also joined this class, after a successful run in the Prototypes category in the former American Le Mans Series. They will enter in a Ferrari 458 Italia. Jeff Segal, a two-time GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series GT champion said;
We’ve had a lot to learn, and we had a very productive test. The car has been really well sorted out after running for the past two seasons of development. Our challenge is taking a team that has been racing a prototype to work with a GT car and put together a lot of new faces. Now we’ve got a laundry list of things to do before the race, but I think we’re in good shape. You can tell this team is used to winning championship. They’ve been up to the challenge at every step.
The Main race will take place from January 23rd to 26th.
was awesome to see cars on the track again!