Petit Le Mans: AXR Cadillacs continue their rebound in FP3
Action Express Racing continued to look strong in third practice at Road Atlanta, as Felipe Nasr clings to hopes of retaining the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype crown he earned with Eric Curran.
While Acura Team Penske’s Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya need only finish in the top eight in Saturday’s Petit Le Mans to earn the title, Pipo Derani – new to the AXR squad this year – ensured the team topped two of today’s sessions at the 2.54-mile Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Derani sent the #31 Whelen Engineering-backed Cadillac DPi-V.R around in 69.455sec to eclipse teammate Filipe Albuquerque by approximately 0.2sec.
Helio Castroneves grabbed third Acura in the car he will share with Ricky Taylor and Graham Rahal this weekend. Teammate Montoya set the fastest time in the #6 ARX-05 but it was good enough for only ninth.
Tristan Vautier again put JDC-Miller in the spotlight by clocking fourth in the #85 Cadillac ahead of Oliver Jarvis’ #77 Mazda and the Colin Braun-steered CORE autosport-run Nissan DPi.
Returning after its big shunt is the Juncos Racing team, for whom Spencer Pigot was 10th-fastest.
In GT Le Mans, the Ford GTs were again fast and finished 1-3, split by Tom Blomqvist’s best effort in the BMW M8 GTE and chased hard by Mike Rockenfeller in the #3 Corvette C7.R.
IMSA Radio reported that Daniel Serra’s reduced number of laps in the Ferrari 488 GTE of the returning Risi Competizione squad was due to a drivetrain issue that saw the car – not seen in IMSA since the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January – taken back behind the wall for much of the session.
For the second time in three sessions, Bill Auberlen sent Turner Motorsports’ trusty BMW M6 GT3 to the top of the GT Daytona times, albeit less than a tenth of a second quicker than Jeroen Bleekemolen’s Mercedes AMG-GT3 run by Riley Motorsport, and Spencer Pumpelly’s Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
Fourth practice begins at 11.15am local (Eastern) time on Friday, with qualifying commencing at 3.55pm.
Session results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 |  Felipe Nasr  Eric Curran Pipo Derani | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'09.455 | |
| 2 | 5 |  Joao Barbosa  Mike Conway Filipe Albuquerque | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'09.653 | 0.198 |
| 3 | 7 | Ricky Taylor Helio Castroneves Graham Rahal | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'09.728 | 0.273 |
| 4 | 85 |  Mikhail Goikhberg  Tristan Vautier  Juan Piedrahita | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'09.935 | 0.480 |
| 5 | 77 | Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez  Timo Bernhard | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'09.941 | 0.486 |
| 6 | 54 | Jon Bennett Colin Braun Romain Dumas | DPi | Nissan DPi | 1'09.992 | 0.537 |
| 7 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor Matthieu Vaxiviere | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'09.998 | 0.543 |
| 8 | 55 | Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell Olivier Pla | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'10.253 | 0.798 |
| 9 | 6 | Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya Simon Pagenaud | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'10.294 | 0.839 |
| 10 | 50 | Will Owen  Rene Binder Spencer Pigot | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.555 | 1.100 |
| 11 | 84 |  Simon Trummer  Stephen Simpson Chris Miller | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.813 | 1.358 |
| 12 | 52 | Matt McMurry Gabriel Aubry Dalton Kellett | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'11.689 | 2.234 |
| 13 | 38 | Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson Andrew Evans | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'11.731 | 2.276 |
| 14 | 66 | Joey Hand Dirk Muller Sébastien Bourdais | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'16.552 | 7.097 |
| 15 | 25 | Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi Colton Herta | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'16.789 | 7.334 |
| 16 | 67 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook  Scott Dixon | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'16.808 | 7.353 |
| 17 | 3 |  Jan Magnussen  Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'16.869 | 7.414 |
| 18 | 62 | James Calado  Alessandro Pier Guidi Daniel Serra | GTLM | Ferrari 488 GTE | 1'16.936 | 7.481 |
| 19 | 912 | Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor Mathieu Jaminet | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'17.113 | 7.658 |
| 20 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards Philipp Eng | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'17.123 | 7.668 |
| 21 | 911 | Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'17.151 | 7.696 |
| 22 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'17.165 | 7.710 |
| 23 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Dillon Machavern | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'19.311 | 9.856 |
| 24 | 33 | Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'19.375 | 9.920 |
| 25 | 44 | John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'19.408 | 9.953 |
| 26 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis Marco Seefried | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'19.732 | 10.277 |
| 27 | 29 | Christopher Mies Richard Feller Daniel Morad | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'19.856 | 10.401 |
| 28 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Jeff Westphal | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'19.897 | 10.442 |
| 29 | 14 | Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth Parker Chase | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'20.065 | 10.610 |
| 30 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman Justin Marks | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'20.081 | 10.626 |
| 31 | 9 | Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon Lars Kern | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'20.319 | 10.864 |
| 32 | 57 | Katherine Legge Ana Beatriz Christina Nielsen | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'20.530 | 11.075 |
| 33 | 47 | Brandon Gdovic Don Yount  Shinya Michimi | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'20.804 | 11.349 |
| 34 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell Aaron Telitz | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'20.865 | 11.410 |
| View full results | ||||||
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About this article
| Series | IMSA |
| Event | Road Atlanta |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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