Johnny O'Connell topped the Sunday afternoon time charts on the third and final day of Grand-Am's January Test Days at
Daytona, bringing the curtain down on preparations for the 46th running of the Rolex 24 later this month.
ALMS regular O'Connell lapped the 3.56-mile Daytona road course in 1min 42.396secs at the wheel of the #91 Riley-Mathews Motorsports Pontiac Riley, belying his lack of experience in the Daytona Prototype machine.
“I drove the car first last night [for the night practice] and I loved it,” he said, having driven a DP just once prior to this weekend, “When I was in the car, I think we were third quickest. Then, this morning, they made some changes, and I didn't like the car as much, so to be able to get the car back to where it was very comfortable and easy to drive is a good thing.”
O'Connell will be joined for the Rolex 24 by series regulars Marc Goossens and Jim Matthews, as well as IndyCar rookie of the year Ryan Hunter-Reay, and makes no secrets about his goals for the race.
“When I was talking to my bosses at GM, they really wanted me to run the Pontiac GXP.R in the GT class,” the Corvette favourite said, “I told them that, if there was a good prototype team and we had a shot at winning, I'd really like that opportunity. When Bill Riley talked to them and said 'yeah, we'd like him', that was a cool deal for me.”
O'Connell's effort wasn't quite quick enough to topple defending Rolex 24 champion Scott Pruett from top spot on the combined speed charts for the weekend, the Ganassi stalwart's opening day 1min 41.232secs effort in the #01 TELMEX/Target Lexus Riley proving good enough to stave off all challenges. Penske-Taylor Racing's Ryan Briscoe came closest to knocking Pruett off his perch with a 1min 41.277secs laps in the new #9 Toshiba Pontiac Riley, run by a collaboration of Wayne Taylor Racing and Penske Racing, with NASCAR convert AJ Allmendinger third fastest overall after his table-topping Saturday lap for Michael Shank Racing.
![Jim Matthews/Marc Goossens/Johnny O'Connell/Ryan Hunter-Reay - Riley-Mathews Motorsports Pontiac Riley [pic credit: Grand-Am]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/401781.jpg)
