Porsche’s new US regular Nick Tandy topped the times at Daytona International Speedway in the GT Le Mans class today for the debut of the new 2014 Porsche 911 RSR.

The on-track debut of CORE autosport as Porsche’s factory squad went exceptionally well with Tandy stopping the clocks at 1 minute 45.564 seconds in the afternoon session.

Tandy’s time topped the performances of the new Corvette C7.Rs from the morning session. Corvette was fastest in the morning with a best time of 1:45.743 for the No.4 machine ahead of the sister No.3 entry.

While Porsche has two cars on site at Daytona, the team are only running one car per day. Regular drivers Tandy, Patrick Long, Richard Leitz and Michael Christensen – joined by enduro pilots Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet – are rotating through the seat.

“It has been a very good day. We’ve done many laps and we’ve worked through a number of things. It is the first day of testing but it is always nice to be at the top of the timesheet – that is where everybody wants to be,” last year’s Petit Le Mans GT winner said.

“Although this car is new in the US, it has raced before in Bahrain in the WEC in this spec and we’ve done a fair bit of testing. We’re probably at a better point of development in this car, in this series than some of the other teams.

“Each car in the GTLM field has its strength and weaknesses. Some cars are good in a straight line, others are good on cornering. The job that Michelin has done – not just with our car – but with many of the other manufacturers – means our car is very good with mechanical grip. It is going to be very interesting when we get racing.”