Daytona 24H / Roar - Cadillac Racing rises to top of the charts

A productive opening day of the Roar Before the 24 for Cadillac Racing was punctuated by the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R recording the best lap time of the two sessions on the 3.56-mile, 12-turn Daytona International Speedway.

Reigning IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) champion Pipo Derani set the pace at 1 minute, 35.217 seconds with 12:30 left in the 90-minute session.

Teammates Jack Aitken and Tom Blomqvist also saw significant seat time in the hybrid racecar.

“It’s getting back into the rhythm,” Derani said “You’ve got to be on your toes. It was a good day, but still you’ve got to keep digging. It’s great to be back. I think the three of us are running fairly similar and want the same thing from the car. We still have our program to go through, and we are ticking those boxes, and hopefully we’ll be as ready as we can for the race week.” 

The No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R driven by Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon and Alex Palou was sixth quick in the second session at 1:36.160 as Palou – the reigning INDYCAR champion – took the lion’s share of the laps. He rejoins the stellar lineup after co-driving for the Chip Ganassi Racing-run team in 2022 at the Rolex 24. The roster features drivers who have combined for 12 INDYCAR championships.

The prelude to the Jan. 27-28 season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona includes three sessions Saturday and a warmup Sunday before the 15-minute GTP qualifying that will set the field for the twice-around-the-clock test.

Ten hybrid GTP racecars are entered in the 62nd edition of the endurance classic.

“First time with the GTP and it was a really good day. It was a ton of fun,” Palou said. “I had to learn all of the controls and learn how the car drives with the differences between GTP, DPi and also INDYCAR. We ran a lot of laps and found a few things that can help with the race. We did a long run in the afternoon and also worked on running in traffic. It's going to be a great weekend."

Cadillac has won the overall Rolex 24 title four times since the inception of the DPi era. Van der Zande is a two-time winner (2019, 2020) with Cadillac Racing, while third-year teammate Bourdais is also a double winner (2014, 2017). Blomqvist, endurance driver for the championship-winning No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, has won the Rolex 24 the past two years.