Five of the seven sessions ended with a Ligier at the top of the timesheet. With the exception of Saturday morning, when fog overtook the Daytona International Speedway, the LM P2 designed by Onroak Automotive was intractable in the hands of Ozz Negri, head driver with Michael Shank Racing; Olivier Pla, official Ford driver in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) who will compete in the four North American Endurance Cup races with Michael Shank Racing; and Pipo Derani, the young Brazilian who recently joined Extreme Speed Motorsports.
A few minutes before the checkered flag of the last session, Pipo Derani bagged the fastest lap in 1:39:249, almost two-tenths faster than the best time clocked by his fellow countryman Ozz Negri in 1:39:438, but a bit slower than last year's best lap (1:39:181). Among the competitors of the two Ligiers, only the DeltaWing of Katherine Legge and the Corvette DP of brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor - who will race as third drivers with Corvette Racing in LM GTE Pro at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June - were on their game.
It is much tighter on the other hand in GTLM since the new BMW M6 clocked the best time (1:45:088) thanks to Lucas Luhr, who has two class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but only carries a two-hundredths lead (1:45:106) on the Corvette C7.R that won in the LM GTE Pro class at the Mans last year. Far from the most packed class, GTLM is nonetheless often the most competitive and offers a large group of cars with no less than five constructors officially present (Ford, Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche) or via an outfit with official support (Ferrari with Risi Competizione and BMW with RLL).
The 10 cars on the track all figured within the same second at times, including the new Ford GT, which suggests the marque has prepared well for its return to endurance 50 years after its first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In PC, the Starworks Motorsport oufit, winner in the LM P2 class at Le Mans in 2012, was fastest this weekend with a time of 1:42:118, while in GTD, different cars took turns at the top of the timesheet. In the end, the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alex Job Racing and Leh Keen had the best time of 1:47:852, but like in GTLM, it's very tight.
The competitors will meet up again on January 28th for the first free practice session of the Rolex 24 at Daytona which will take place January 30th and 31st.
Cécile Bonardel / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO
PHOTO: DAYTONA BEACH (FLORIDA, U.S.), DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, ROAR BEFORE THE ROLEX 24, SATURDAY JANUARY 9 2016, DAY 2. Extreme Speed Motorsports' No. 2 Ligier clocked the best time of the weekend thanks to Pipo Derani.