DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Roar Before the 24 has come to an end. After seven sessions of high-speed testing around the Daytona Speedway banking and through its twisting infield loops, success by some of the usual suspects was balanced by some completely unexpected triumphs from teams heretofore relegated to the back of the pack.
The prototype class was dominated throughout the weekend by teams and cars which either hadn’t run up front in years, or never had before the Roar.
Mazda’s switch to gasoline power for its pair of Lola-based prototypes paid off in a big way, with both cars running in the top three or five throughout the weekend. The DeltaWing finally started to deliver on some of the promise it had presented since its introduction three years ago, leading one session and finishing in the top three in a couple others.
Scott Sharp’s Extreme Speed Motorsports, a team which has never quite found success in several seasons, several classes, and several series, might finally have arrived. The team was quick throughout the Roar, and new driver Luis Felipe Derani pushed the team’s Ligier JS P2-Honda to the fastest time of the weekend on Sunday afternoon, lapping the 3.56-mile Daytona road course in 1:39.249 at 129.130 mph.
ESM wasn’t quickest by much. In combined session times, Michael Shank Racing’s similar Ligier-Honda was only 0.189 seconds off the pace. In fact, the best times of the top ten prototypes were all within one second of Derani’s time, and the fastest eight all broke 1:40.
Even more interesting is the variety of chassis and motors which captured the top spots. No longer is the WeatherTech Championship the domain of the Daytona Prototypes. Two Ligier-Hondas, two Mazdas, the BR01-Nissan, and the DeltaWing all outperformed the quickest DP, the Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Corvette.
