Saturday’s The Roar Before The 24 called on teams and drivers to leave behind Christmas trees and New Year’s Prosecco and trade them in for racing shoes and racing gloves, as it was time for the first race of the young new year.
The 1 hour and 40 minute long race provides no championship points for teams and drivers, but serves as a qualifying race and to set the grid for next weekend’s fourth annual 24 Hours of Daytona.
World Of SimRacing Team out of Spain left little doubt amongst the grid, that they’re ready to answer the call and after finishing runners-up in the championship last year, do one better this season - the No. 51 Cadillac took the win in GTP class and overall after 56 laps of racing.
The GTP class saw a scary crash at the halfway mark, just after the restart following the race’s lone full-course yellow. Going into turn four - also dubbed “the international horseshoe” - Niclas Pedersen in the #32 Wastegate Racing Cadillac saw the rear of his car make contact with the #46 Rising Panda Racing Acura of Remy Loesch.
The LMP2 champion of last season, who made his debut in GTP class competition in the series was startled to see the #32 car brake early on cold tires and the two cars made contact, sending the former hard into the tire barriers, completely destroying the car. The #32 Wastegate Racing machine did not return to the race after the incident while the #46 car went on to finish seventh.
In their series debut the #37 W2 e-ProGP team out of Brazil with Marcos Eberhardt and Arthur Figueiredo took second place, as the Ferrari 499P made a grand entrance into the VSCA SportsCar Championship.
Valkyrie Exype - another series newcomer team from Belgium - with drivers Julien Vanherf and Félix Ferir finished third after leading an impressive 23 laps.
Vision 1 Motorsports celebrate win in LMP2 class
Continuing their momentum since capturing their first series win in last year’s Petit Le Mans, Vision 1 Motorsports and the #11 Dallara P217 with drivers Mario Cappellucci and Jeremy Carter won the race in LMP2 class, leading nearly half the race with 24 laps total coming off a fourth place on the starting grid.
Starting from pole, the #3 Tri-State Racing Dallara P217 which has changed car numbers from #123 over the offseason, saw drivers Christian Sherrard and Thomas Marcelino take second place, after leading 21 laps in a very solid and convincing outing for the team out of New Jersey.
Rounding out the LMP2 class podium was the #89 Keystone Simsport. Phillip Forrester, who previously competed for Screeching Moose Motorsports who have left the series in 2024 and team-mate Erik Terry-Haag came up short of winning the race by a mere 6 seconds, but had a strong podium result to go home with, underlining the team’s ambitions for next weekend’s big race.
Kinetic Racing reap early rewards from manufacturer change
Over the winter, Kinetic Racing ditched their famous blue Porsche 911 in favor of making the transition to McLaren for the 2025 season.
Reaping early rewards from the move, the team from Auckland, New Zealand and their #67 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo with Vincent L’Herbier and Aedan Campbell edged series newcomers and championship co-favorites #71 Sim City Racing who saw team owner Jason Allen and team-mate Peter Spijkman start second and finish second in a race that came down to an entertaining and thrilling battle for the win in the closing laps.
Defending GT PRO champions #44 Fischer Motorsport with British driver Stephen Nobes and German team-mate Daniel Gruber took their Porsche 911 GT3 R to a third-place finish to round out the GT PRO podium.
All-American podium in GT AM class
In GT AM class, it was an all-American podium with Chevrolet taking first and second place and Ford taking third place.
The #74 SRN Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Ryan Huff and Niel Hekkens didn’t lead any laps but benefited from the post-race disqualification of the #183 Porsche of Blocco Motore Simsport, after the team entered two Gold-rated drivers in the race, in a violation of driver rating requirements for the series and class.
Still, the #74 car had a strong outing in its first start in the series, keeping up with the top contenders in GT PRO class even. The team out of Portland will have to be regarded as one of the favorites for next week’s 24 Hours of Daytona.
Taking second place was the #34 Wastegate Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Will Robertson and Tamer Elbaga, followed by the #65 Vulture Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 and Jeff Carollo and Shreyas Venkataraju.
Up next: 24 Hours of Daytona
With the starting grid now set for the fourth annual 24 Hours of Daytona, teams and drivers will take their cars back to the shop one last time before track activities return at Daytona on Thursday for Free Practice 1, followed by final Free Practice 2 on Friday.
VSCA have announced an additional warmup session will be available to teams and drivers Saturday at 1300 GMT.
The final warmup session for the longest and most prestigious race of the year starts Saturday at 1400 GMT, followed by Drivers Meeting at 1430 GMT.
The green flag for the 24 Hours of Daytona is scheduled for 1500 GMT on Saturday.
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