Live updates: Day 1 of Daytona's Rolex 24 testing comes to a close; Helio Castroneves fast

DAYTONA BEACH — Cars are on the track!

The first official testing sessions for the 2023 racing season are underway at Daytona, as the 61 cars of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship begin prepping for next weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona. The three-day "Roar Before the Rolex 24" runs through Sunday.

Friday's shakedowns began with 30-minute session for IMSA's VP Challenge Series, which will run a pair of 45-minute races this season — Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. The VP cars were followed by a 45-minute session for IMSA's Michelin Challenge Series.

All three racing series and their assorted classes of cars continue today's testing through 6 p.m.

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Helio Castroneves' Acura shows the way in Friday's final Rolex 24 test session

Day 1 is in the books at the “Roar Before the Rolex 24” at Daytona, the three-day test session ahead of next weekend’s 61st annual Rolex 24.

No surprise, the nine sleek prototypes making up the marquee GTP class led the way. As happened in Friday morning’s initial outing, times steadied themselves in the 95-second area.

Fastest in the final session was Helio Castroneves in the No. 60 Acura-built GTP with a lap time of 1:35.210, a blink of the eye faster than another Acura, the No. 10 of Wayne Taylor Racing, piloted by the owner’s son, Ricky.

Those times basically matched the times from last year’s initial test sessions with the former marquee cars from the DPi (Daytona Prototype International) class.

The fastest from the other classes:

LMP2: The No. 11 Oreca (they’re all Orecas in that class) with Steven Thomas at the helm (1:38.730).

LMP3: No. 36 Ligier from Andretti Autosport, with Rasmus Lindh driving (1:42.926).

GTD Pro: No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, with Ben Barnicoat aboard (1:47.040).

GTD: No. 75 Mercedes AMG, with Fabian Schiller piloting (1:47.020).

Things crank back to life Saturday morning at 8:40 with VP Challenge qualifying followed by Michelin Pilot Challenge practice, followed by the first of three sessions (at 11:15 a.m.) for the big-league WeatherTech Challenge Series.

Friday's final Rolex 24 test session on the track until 6 p.m.

The 61 cars entered for the 61st Rolex 24 at Daytona have taken the track for the final session of Day 1 at the three-day “Roar Before the 24” weekend.

Laps are scheduled to churn from 4:15 to 6 p.m., with all five classes of cars getting 90 minutes each — GTD, LMP3 and LMP2 from 4:15 to 5:45; GTD Pro and GTP prototypes from 4:30 to 6.

The Rolex session follows the second shakedowns of the day for IMSA’s VP Challenge and Michelin Pilot Challenge circuits.

Mustangs owned four of the top five speeds in Friday’s second session. The NASCAR-themed Mustangs were fifth and fifth. The No. 42 co-driven by Chandler Smith and Harrison Burton was first with a fastest lap of 1 minute, 53.1 seconds around the 3.56-mile course. Its sister car, the No. 41 piloted by Hailie Deegan and Ben Rhodes, was fifth at 1:53.7. A Porsche and two more Mustangs made up positions 2-4.

Goldburg, Garg finish 1-2 in both VP Challenge practices

The same two drivers topped both practices in the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge on Friday.

Dan Goldburg, driving for JDC MotorSports in a Duqueine D08 shaved a few tenths off, following up a time of 1:44.188 in the morning with an improved 1:43.827 in the afternoon. Those times were good enough to sit atop the leaderboard in both of the day’s sessions.

Behind him in each practice was Bijoy Garg, piloting a Ligier JS P320 for Jr III Racing. Garg ground out almost identical times, following up a morning 1:44.617 with an afternoon 1:44.649.

The VP Challenge will be split into two races with the first being held at 2:05 p.m. on Saturday and the second scheduled for 12:20 on Sunday afternoon.

Hailie Deegan returns to Daytona for Rolex week

Hailie Deegan is back for her third sports-car effort at Daytona.

Largely to help develop her road-racing abilities, Ford Performance is again including her as part of its Mustang effort in IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge series. She’ll be sharing the No. 41 Mustang with fellow NASCAR Truck Series driver Ben Rhodes.

Missouri-based PF Racing, in cooperation with Ford, will also field a No. 42 Mustang for two other up-and-coming NASCAR racers – Zane Smith and Harrison Burton.

Deegan, who has spent the past two seasons in the Truck Series, returns to that circuit for a third year in 2023 but with a new team — ThorSport.

New GTP prototypes set the early pace, as expected

With lap speeds practically identical to the first laps of last year's Rolex 24 testing, the new GTP machines were roughly 4 seconds faster than the nearest competition over Daytona's 3.56-mile road course.

The fastest lap was turned by the No. 60 Acura-backed entry of Meyer Shank Racing. Tom Blomqvist was at the controls for his quickest circuit of 95.635 seconds (that's 1:35.635 on the official charts).

A Team Penske Porsche and Wayne Taylor Racing Acura were next, just a fraction of a second behind.

Fastest LMP2: The No. 52 Mathiasan Motorsports entry, with Nicolas Lapierre aboard (1:39.167).

Fastest LMP3: No. 38 Ligier, with Connor Bloum driving (1:43.485).

Fastest GTD Pro: No. 23 Aston Martin, with Alex Riberas aboard (1:47.064).

Fastest GTD: No. 44 Aston Martin, with veteran Spencer Pumpelly driving (1:47.004).

The session started about 10 minutes late due to track cleanup and ran about 10 minutes beyond its scheduled conclusion of 12:30.

The VP Challenge and Michelin Pilot series each gets a session between 1:45 and 4 this afternoon, while the five classes of the WeatherTech Championship get the track again from 4:15 to today's 6 p.m. close of testing.

Slow start to first WeatherTech session

The 11 a.m. start to testing for IMSA's WeatherTech Series was delayed a few minutes for track cleanup, then stalled again when an LMP car went into a spin to bring out the red flag.

By 11:25, consistent hot laps were being turned, with GTP prototypes setting the pace.

The No. 59 Kohr Motorsports Ford Musting GT4, piloted by Luca Mars, turned in the fastest lap in the first session of Michelin Pilot Challenge practice on Friday morning at 1:53.04.

A total of 43 cars took to the track during the one-hour and 15-minute practice with cars in both the Grand Sport (GS) and Touring Car (TCR) classes taking part. The top 43 fastest lap by driver were clocked in GS cars.

Trailing Mars was Daniel Morad in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT, who clocked a time of 1:53.43, just 0.39 seconds off the pace.

The No. 41 PF Racing Ford Mustang, driven by James Pesek as well NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitors Ben Rhodes and Hailie Deegan, was 26^th fastest after a lap of 1:54.98, turned in by Pesek. Rhodes was 29^th best at 1:55.259 while Deegan didn’t participate in the session.

The Michelin Pilot Challenge series is slated for five practices this weekend before opening the season with a four-hour race next Friday ahead of the Rolex 24.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 24 hours: Rolex starts with 'Roar' - Live updates Friday