Blomqvist Puts Acura On Top in Opening Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Tom Blomqvist sent Acura Meyer Shank Racing to the top of the timesheets as official practice for this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona began on Thursday morning.

Blomqvist set his best lap of 1:35.415 with just over 30 minutes remaining in a largely incident-free 90 minutes of running aboard the No. 60 Acura ARX-06, following a relatively low-key Roar Before the 24 for the Honda-owned marque.

The British driver’s benchmark time was almost a full second up on the fastest time set in the Roar by Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr, with the top eight cars all beating the benchmark laid down by Nasr in the first Roar session.

Porsche’s two works entries were second- and third-fastest as Kevin Estre was second-fastest aboard the No. 6 car on a 1:35.520, 0.014 seconds ahead of Nasr’s No. 7.

Filipe Albuquerque set the best lap among the Cadillac contingent in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R to go fourth, while the best of the BMW M Hybrid V8s, the No. 24, completed the top five in the hands of Dries Vanthoor.

The sister BMW only completed five laps, and no timed lap, after suffering battery issues early in the session.

Renger van der Zande was sixth in the No. 93 Acura ahead of the 2025-spec JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche of Nico Pino and the two remaining Cadillacs — Jack Aitken’s No. 31 Action Express Racing car leading the No. 40 WTR example of Louis Deletraz.

The solo Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie was 10th-fastest and 1.8 seconds off the pace.

In LMP2, an early effort by Peugeot FIA World Endurance Championship signing Nick Cassidy put the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 fastest.

Cassidy set a best time of 1:39.764 early in the session to go 0.354 seconds ahead of Alex Quinn in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car.

Third-fastest was Pietro Fittipaldi in the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports Oreca, a car that limped back to the pits in the closing stages of the session with a puncture while FIA Bronze-rated Chris Cumming was at the wheel.

Leading the way in the GTD ranks was the No. 19 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Valentin-Haase Clot, whose best time of 1:46.325 was nearly a second faster than the best time set in either GT class during the Roar.

Second of the GTD cars and best of the GTD Pro entries was the No. 033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Alessio Rovera, followed by McLaren factory driver Dean MacDonald in the No. 59 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Next up was the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari in which Antonio Fuoco set the best time.

Qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona is slated for 2:10 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 1

Source: Sports Car 365