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Testing report

Rebellion and Corvette lead first day at Roar

Neel Jani wheeled the Rebellion Racing Oreca 07 Gibson to the top of the timesheets at Daytona International Speedway's Roar Before the 24 today, while defending GTLM winners Corvette Racing also shone.

#13 Rebellion Racing ORECA 07: Neel Jani, Sébastien Buemi, Stéphane Sarrazin, Nick Heidfeld

#13 Rebellion Racing ORECA 07: Neel Jani, Sébastien Buemi, Stéphane Sarrazin, Nick Heidfeld

Art Fleischmann

#52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Gibson Ligier JS P217: Tom Kimber-Smith
#55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda DPi: Jonathan Bomarito, Tristan Nunez, Spencer Pigot, #70 Mazda Motorsports Mazda Dpi: Joel Miller, Tom Long
#3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen
#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi: Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli, Jeff Gordon
#31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi: Eric Curran, Dane Cameron, Seb Morris, Mike Conway
#3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen
#13 Rebellion Racing ORECA 07: Neel Jani, Sébastien Buemi, Stéphane Sarrazin, Nick Heidfeld, #27 Dream Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3: Cedric Sbirrazzuoli, Lawrence DeGeorge, Raffaele Giammaria

The Swiss ace put the Swiss squad into P1 with a 1min39.164sec [129.2mph] in the morning, an effort he trimmed by a mere 0.004sec in the afternoon. However, he remained on top by more than quarter of a second.

On his first encounter with the DIS road course, the reigning WEC champion commented: “I did the track walk yesterday and I saw the steep, oval banking of the corners and I thought, ‘Whoa, that looks quite steep! How do you drive next to each other on those?'”

“The first few laps it was a bit strange but then you learn it. It was very special to be here the first time and P1 is always a good thing.”

While the Cadillac DPis of Wayne Taylor Racing (driven by Ricky Taylor) and Action Express Racing (driven by Dane Cameron) were second and third fastest in the morning session, the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Oreca Gibson of Mathias Beche which became Jani’s closest pursuer, falling short by 0.274 seconds.

Taylor’s morning time kept the #10 car in third overall with a 1min39.496sec lap, while the  #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 Gibson and the #81 DragonSpeed Oreca Gibson were fourth and fifth quickest, respectively, piloted by José Gutierrez and Nicolas Lapierre, respectively.

Joao Barbosa put the #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac sixth quickest, ahead of the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P, which reeled off a 1:40.830 lap in the hands of Jonathan Bomarito.

Tequila Patron ESM’s Scott Sharp was eighth on the time sheets, with a 1:40.973 lap in the Nissan Onroak DPi.

In the GT Le Mans class, defending winners Corvette Racing ended the day quickest in GT Le Mans, with Jan Magnussen’s 1:44.760 lap in the morning session in the #3 C7.R standing as quickest of the day.

Magnussen said: “We had a good test in the middle of December and got to try some stuff that we thought might work here. Tomorrow and Sunday we are going to try and put all of that together to see if we can improve on the racecar.

“In the past the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R has been a good car, a fast car here at Daytona. Hopefully we can improve a little bit on that and see what that gets us. So far, the feeling is good. I think everyone in the team is quite happy with the progress that we are making.”

Magnussen edged out a trio of Ford GTs for the quickest time, with the #66 Ford of Dirk Muller ending the day second quickest.

The No. 26 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca FLM09 paced Prototype Challenge, with a late flyer from Andrew Davis putting the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS on top in GT Daytona.

The only significant incident on the day came in the morning when Clark Toppe crashed the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09. While the 2016 IMSA Prototype Lites champion was uninjured, the car sustained gearbox damage and is not expected to return until tomorrow evening as it waits on a spare unit.

Saturday’s action will see three test sessions for WeatherTech Championship competitors, including a night session, although rain is in the forecast for tomorrow.

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