The final practice sessions for the Rolex 24 were held today, Thursday. Three sessions in all, were conducted in the morning, afternoon, and night practice. I was at the race last year and night practice was a definite highlight, seeing the cars under the Daytona floodlights for the first time in person. Here are some of the results of the Free Practice sessions for the two car duo at Action Express, the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R to be driven by Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani, Mike Conway, and Chase Elliott, and the #48 Ally Bank Cadillac DPi-V.R to be driven by Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller, Simon Pagenaud, and Kamui Kobayashi.
FP1 saw the #31 car in second overall trailing only the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. The best lap for #31 this session was a 1:34.731 on the 16th lap of a 22 lap run during the session. There's no real way of knowing who was in the car as all four drivers are listed on the time sheet. Likewise, for the #48, and the Ally Bank Cadillac, our second car at AXR for this race, turned in the sixth quickest time, hitting the traps at 1:35.134 on lap seven of a 24 lap stint on track. The numbers reflect that while it is hopeful that the ideal would be for both of the cars to be leading, one, will likely be a rabbit, and the other, will slowly and steadily run through the race. However, this is not necessarily true. I believe both of our cars and our eight drivers, will be giving it their all in the race. These endurance races in modern time are flat out sprints. Back in the days of the Grand Touring Prototypes and some other cars that have run here at Daytona, endurance racing used to be about going for the long haul.
That isn't so much the case anymore. Now, these are flat out sprints between pit stops and so, as such, we at Action Express intend to uncork as many fastest lap times as possible with the expectation of winning. However, practice is so different than the race itself. Track and weather conditions can change and will change at the drop of a hat. Being at Daytona last year, and feeling the January Florida weather, it can be warm and sunny one minute, and then, a few moments later, clouds can descend and cool the air and the track by a good 15-20 degrees that you definitely feel. In January at Daytona, there is a nip in the air.
The tale of the tape will be shown in the next couple of sessions as while one of the other Cadillac's has a huge turn of speed, so does our team. It appears a few of the other DPi manufacturers are also in the middle of the road in terms of their times and speeds, but these particular Japanese brands which happen to build their cars stateside as well, their reliability may not be as robust as those of the Cadillac's. Furthermore, the other team that is running a Cadillac, has only one bullet in the gun, compared to AXR having two. Free Practice 2 saw #48 leapfrog to second place on the time sheets, with a 25 lap stint being recorded. Of those 25 laps, the best time was clocked on the final lap of the run for the #48, stopping the clocks at 1:34.519, a mere two tenths behind one of our rivals campaigning one of these aforementioned Japanese race cars.
#31, our classic entry that has been in every race since the DPi era began, was down the order a bit, in seventh position. 1:35.345 was the best time on the 29th and final lap of a 29 lap stint. It was over a second behind the leader. Would we be able to pick up time compared to our team mate and our competitors? Would Action Express lock out the top of the times in FP3? That would become the lingering question. In Free Practice 3, Action Express was able to bring both cars into the top five, running third for the #31 and fifth for the #48.
#31 scored a best lap on the final lap of a long 42 lap run, turning in a 1:34.653, half a second away from the top running car. #48 turned in 1:34.726. Not too far away, just a couple positions back of #31. Interestingly, #48 turned in a dozen or so more laps during the session and punched in with the best lap time approximately halfway through. So, there you have it. We are right in league with the competition, and I believe, with our two car team, we can expect to have both fully in contention and judging by the result of last Sunday's qualifying event, where one of our cars did go to victory lane, repeating that feat is possible. Expectations of winning is what we at AXR strive for. What will the race hold in store when the green flag flies on Saturday afternoon? Stay tuned.
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