Campbell Porsche tops practice at Daytona 24

Honours have been shared between Acura, Cadillac, and Porsche on the opening day of practice for this weekend’s Rolex 24 in Daytona.

Three sessions brought with it three different pace-setters, with Australian Matt Campbell fastest in Practice 3.

The day’s final outing was held at night, the Porsche Penske Motorsports pilot logging a 1:35.802s to top proceedings.

It had been a day riddled with interruptions with a spate of red flags in all three sessions.

Lucas Auer came off worst with a hefty crash in Practice 1 to draw what was the fifth stoppage of the 90-minute session.

There were further red flags in Practice 2 and while Practice 3 ran more smoothly it still witnessed a stoppage when the #476 Ferrari 296 GT3 ran wide and clouted the wall at Turn 5.

Practice 1 saw the #10 Konica Minolta Acrua fastest with a 1:35.366s set by Filipe Albuquerque before Richard Westbrook recorded a 1:35.185s aboard the #02 Cadillac in the day’s second session.

Across the first two hitouts, the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports proved the fastest of the LMP2 runners, with Aussie Josh Burdon’s #74 Riely heading the LMP3 pack in both Practice 1 and Practice 2.

AF Corse then took the initiative in Practice 3 with the 10th fastest time of the session for the #88 Oreca LMP2, while Andretti Autosport topped the LMP3 field.

Mercedes proved fastest in GTD, with the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports car ending Practice 2 fastest after the #57 Winward Racing car was quickest in the opening session.

Both were GTD class cars, with the fastest GTD Pro effort being the Jules Gounon WeatherTeach Racing Mercedes, which recorded a 1:46.400s to sit 29th overall in Practice 2 – that car then proved the fastest of all GTD runners in Practice 3 in the hands of Maro Engel.

Scott McLaughlin’s #8 Tower Motorsports entry started the day with the seventh-best time in class, slipping to 10th in Practice 2 and ending the day fourth of the LMP2 runners.

The Earl Bamber Cadillac enjoyed promising pace, topping Practice 2, while the #10 Acrua which features Brendon Hartley was quickest in Practice 1.

Scott Dixon has a strong day, his #01 effort not finishing lower than fourth in any of the three sessions.

Elsewhere there were promising signs for Josh Burdon and the #74 Riley Ligier as it topped two of the three sessions in LMP3, while Kenny Habul’s SunEnergy1 Mercedes was seventh, third, and sixth in GTD class.

A fourth practice session follows tomorrow at 11:20 local time, with the GTP class runners having their own session at 18:25.

The Rolex 24 gets underway at 13:40 local time on Saturday, the starting order for which was set in last weekend’s Roar Before The 24.

Results: Practice 1 | Practice 2 | Practice 3