John Dagys – Action Express Racing led the way in the second of three days of testing at Daytona, as GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series teams prepare for the 50th Rolex 24.
The No. 5 Corvette DP of Darren Law topped the time charts with a 1:41.338 lap time in his Coyote-chassied machine, leading a 1-2-3-4 for Chevrolet.
Law, who shared the wheel of the new-generation Daytona Prototype with season-long co-driver David Donohue and Chtistian Fittipaldi, edged out Friday’s pace-setting No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette DP by 0.065 seconds.
Third quickest went to the sister No. 9 AEX machine, while the Spirit of Daytona Corvette completed the top four overall.
Saturday’s four sessions had its share of drama for a number of competitors, the most significant coming from defending overall winner and Rolex Series champion, Scott Pruett.
The No. 01 Telmex Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-BMW tangled with the No. 24 Alex Job Racing Porsche in the night session, ending the weekend for Pruett and co-drivers Memo Rojas, Graham Rahal and Joey Hand due to lack of spare parts for the new-generation Riley.
“It’s definitely a little setback,” Pruett said. “Normally, we’d just throw new parts back on it and get back out there, but since this is a new car, we’re going to take the car back to the shop and take our time getting a good look at everything. We will take advantage of a bad situation and learn from it.”
Prior to the accident, the Ganassi machine clocked in the fifth quickest time, a 1:41.761, just 0.001 seconds ahead of the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford, another one of the new-gen Rileys.
The GT class was all about Ferrari, as Risi Competizione’s new F458 Italia Grand Am led the way in the highly competitive production-based ranks.
Ferrari factory driver Toni Vilander reeled off a best time of 1:49.239 in Saturday’s afternoon session, edging out the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R by a hefty 0.255 seconds.
AIM Autosport Team FXDD’s Ferrari jumped to third on the time sheets, thanks to a 1:49.514 lap time set by Anthony Lazzaro in the night session.
Proving its competitiveness, the top-18 best times in class were separated by less than one-second.
Other notable incidents included an off for the No. 49 Team Sahlen’s Mazda RX-8 of Joe Sahlen and Luca Forgeois, who spun his No. 65 TRG Porsche into the Turn 5 tire barrier. Both drivers were uninjured.
More than two hours of additional testing is scheduled for Sunday, the third and final day of official testing at Daytona.
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter
focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at askdagys@gmail.com