Motorsport.Com reports that a total of 39 GT cars took to the Daytona high banks for the three-day test, with the No. 30 Racers Edge Motorsports Mazda RX-8 posting the quickest time. Seventeen-year-old Robert Thorne set the quick lap of 1:50.617 in the rotary-powered entry. Thorne shares the car with Ken Dobson and Bob and Jim Michaelian.

Second quickest overall, and over one-half a second slower than the RX-8 was the No. 15 Blackforest Motorsports Ford Mustang Cobra GT of Tom Nastasi, David Empringham and Jean-Francois Dumoulin. Boris Said, who will be the team’s fourth driver in the Rolex 24, was not present at the test.




#30 Racers Edge Motorsports Mazda RX-8: Ken Dobson, Bob Michaelian, Jim Michaelian. Photo by John Dunagan - Fastlines.

The No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 of David Haskell, Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham and Raphael Matos posted the seventh-best time in class, just seven-tenths slower than the Racers Edge RX-8. The team will unveil its 2008 sponsor at the North American International Auto Show at Detroit next Monday.

Another Mazda showing early speed was the No. 40 Hyper Sport RX-8, which was ninth. Joe Foster and Charles Espenlaub will team with TV star Patrick Dempsey, who will be making his Rolex 24 debut.