The Roar Before the 24 weekend featured the opening rounds of the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge for LMP3 and GT4 cars. There were two races, Saturday January 20 at 2:05pm and Sunday January 21 at 12:20pm, with both races streamed live on IMSA TV.

There was a short list of Canadians in the VP Challenge:

 

#61 George Staikos - Ave Motorsports - Ligier JS P320

#87 Marco Kacic - FastMD Racing with Remstar - Duqueine D08 (late entry we originally missed, thanks to a follower for pointing it out...)

#21 Jesse Lazare - Motorsports in Action - McLaren Artura GT4

 

In VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Practice 2 from Daytona International Speedway Jesse Lazare went second fastest on the session in the Motorsports In Action McLaren Artura GT4 (after turning only six laps in session 1) and was just 0.150 off the top spot. This bodes well for the Canadian going into qualifying and the first two rounds of the series which take place this weekend.

 

IMSA qualifying results for race 1 of VP Racing Sportscar Challenge at Daytona International Speedway saw the LMP3 of George Staikos (Trenton, ON) starting inside row five in the # 61 Ave Motorsports Ligier, while in GSX, Jesse Lazare (Montreal, QC) will start from inside row six in the #21 Motorsports In Action McLaren Artura.

 

The first IMSA race of the 2024 season was Race 1 in the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge with Marco Kacic finishing P4 in LMP3, George Staikos was 8th in LMP3, while Jesse Lazare finished P13 in GXS

 

Race 2 of the IMSA season was the second race for the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge. LMP3 saw a podium finish for Kelowna BC's Marco Stacic in the #87 Duqueine taking third spot, while George Staikos finished P8 in the #61 Ligier but would be elevated to P7 following an immediate post-race penalty against the second-place finisher (Ware).

 

GSX saw a great run for Jesse Lazare in the Motorsports in Action #21 McLaren Artura moving up to P4 on a last lap shootout following a lengthy yellow. A terrific race for the team after earlier issues limited the number of practice laps they were able to turn.

 

In Michelin Pilot Challenge Practice 2, TCR class, the #6 Honda Civic of the the Montreal Motorsports Group with LP Montour (w/Brian Ortiz) went P2 and the #93 Montreal Motorsports Honda with Karl Wittmer (w /DAI Yoshihira) end up P4. Robert Wickens was P6, Denis Dupont P8 and Mark Wilkins P10 all in Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantras (#33 / #76 / #98)

 

Qualifying for the Michelin Pilot Cup Challenge goes Thursday from 1:15 PM to 1:50 PM ET. Unfortunately there is no streaming available for qualifying. 

 

The Roar also saw qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. 

 

The session for GTD/GTD Pro was shortened due to a red flag and the cars had just under eight minutes to qualify.

 

Canadians finished as follows: (Q = Qualifying Driver)

P1 GTD / P3 overall - Parker Thompson  Q - #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus 

P4 GTD / P6 overall - Kyle Marcelli Q - Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti # 45 Lamborghini Huracan GT3

P5 GTD / P7 overall - Forte Racing #78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Goikhberg / De Francesco)

P9 GTD / P15 overall - #17 AWA Corvette (Anthony Mantell)

P14 GTD / P24 overall - #13 AWA Corvette (Orey Fidani)

P9 Pro / P26 overall - #65 Multimatic Ford Mustang

P13 Pro / P41 overall - #64 Mutimatic Ford Mustang

P17 GTD / P43 overall - #57 Winward Racing Mercedes (Morad)

P18 GTD / P44 overall - Mikael Grenier Q - #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes

P22 GTD / P48 overall - Roman DeAngelis Q #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin (Robichon)

 

The #27 Heart of Racing Aston experienced early problems and would complete only 2 laps.

 

LMP2 Qualifying results (unofficial) for IMSA Weathertech Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway

 

LMP2 qualifying saw the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca (John Farano) will qualify P13

 

Broadcast schedule for this weekends Rolex 24 at Daytona available in IMSA.tv, while the Rolex 24 itself will also be available on REV TV

Thurs Jan 25 - 4:10pm - 5:00pm - Mazda MX5 Cup Race 1 (IMSA.tv)

Fri Jan 26 - 10:10am - 11:00am - Mazda MX5 Cup Race 2 (IMSA.tv)

Fri Jan 26 - 1:40pm - 5:45pm - Michelin Pilot Challenge Race (IMSA.tv)

Sat Jan 27 - 1:30pm - Rolex 24 at Daytona (IMSA.tv and REV TV)