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Practice report

Detroit IMSA: Taylor puts Acura Team Penske on top in FP1

A sensational late lap from Ricky Taylor clinched top spot in the 90-minute opening IMSA practice session in Detroit, but the Action Express Cadillacs prevented an Acura 1-2.

#7 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, P: Ricky Taylor

#7 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, P: Ricky Taylor

Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Taylor’s 1min21.909 in the ARX-05, on the car’s 45th of 47 laps, meant he finished the session 0.206sec faster than Felipe Nasr in the #31 AXR Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Joao Barbosa took over from Filipe Albuquerque in the #5 AXR machine and set its fastest time as the track got quicker, but he was 0.6sec off top spot – yet still fast enough to beat the Dane Cameron/Juan Pablo Montoya-driven Acura.

Colin Braun did a fine job to take fifth in the CORE autosport Oreca-Gibson ahead of the best of the Mazdas, Jonathan Bomarito in the #55 car.

Its sister RT24-P, driven by Oliver Jarvis, quit running after just one lap, bringing out the red flag, but was later able complete 37 laps and he was able to wind the car up to 10th, albeit half a second off Bomarito’s best.

In between the Soul Red machines were Tristan Vautier in the Spirit of Daytona Racing Cadillac – its first official session since the shunt at Sebring in March – followed by Stephen Simpson’s JDC-Miller Motorsports Oreca and Renger van der Zande in Wayne Taylor Racing’s Cadillac.

With GT Le Mans teams preparing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, GT Daytona gets a moment in the GT spotlight this weekend, and last year’s Detroit-winning combination of Katherine Legge and an Acura NSX ensured Meyer Shank Racing was back on top, half a second faster than teammate Lawson Aschenbach, and separated from him by the Lexus RC F of Jack Hawksworth.

Jeroen Bleekemolen’s Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 was fourth quick, edging Bryan Sellers’ best in the Lamborghini Huracan of Paul Miller Racing. Sixth quick was Kenny Habul’s SunEnergy1 Mercedes, which this weekend he will share with sportscar veteran and four-time DTM champion Bernd Schneider.

Practice results:

ClaNumDriverClassChassisTimeGap
1 7 brazil Helio Castroneves 
united_states Ricky Taylor 
P Acura DPi 1'21.909  
2 31 united_states Eric Curran 
brazil Felipe Nasr 
P Cadillac DPi 1'22.115 0.206
3 5 portugal Filipe Albuquerque 
portugal Joao Barbosa 
P Cadillac DPi 1'22.513 0.604
4 6 colombia Juan Pablo Montoya 
united_states Dane Cameron 
P Acura DPi 1'22.789 0.880
5 54 united_states Jon Bennett 
united_states Colin Braun 
P ORECA LMP2 1'23.160 1.251
6 55 united_kingdom Harry Tincknell 
united_states Jonathan Bomarito 
P Mazda DPi 1'23.295 1.386
7 90 united_states Matt McMurry 
france Tristan Vautier 
P Cadillac DPi 1'23.371 1.462
8 99 canada Mikhail Goikhberg 
south_africa Stephen Simpson 
P ORECA LMP2 1'23.520 1.611
9 10 united_states Jordan Taylor 
netherlands Renger van der Zande 
P Cadillac DPi 1'23.589 1.680
10 77 united_kingdom Oliver Jarvis 
united_states Tristan Nunez 
P Mazda DPi 1'23.775 1.866
11 22 brazil Pipo Derani 
united_states Johannes van Overbeek 
P Nissan DPi 1'23.965 2.056
12 2 united_states Scott Sharp 
united_kingdom Ryan Dalziel 
P Nissan DPi 1'24.475 2.566
13 85 switzerland Simon Trummer 
united_states Robert Alon 
P ORECA LMP2 1'24.621 2.712
14 52 colombia Gustavo Yacaman 
colombia Sebastian Saavedra 
P Ligier LMP2 1'25.704 3.795
15 86 united_kingdom Katherine Legge 
germany Mario Farnbacher 
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'29.905 7.996
16 15 denmark David Heinemeier Hansson 
united_kingdom Jack Hawksworth 
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'30.360 8.451
17 93 united_states Justin Marks 
united_states Lawson Aschenbach 
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'30.392 8.483
18 33 netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 
united_states Ben Keating 
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'30.532 8.623
19 48 united_states Bryan Sellers 
united_states Madison Snow 
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'30.538 8.629
20 75 germany Bernd Schneider 
australia Kenny Habul 
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'30.821 8.912
21 16 germany Wolf Henzler 
united_states Michael Schein 
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'30.911 9.002
22 63 united_states Jeff Segal 
united_states Cooper MacNeil 
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 1'31.025 9.116
23 96 united_states Bill Auberlen 
united_states Robby Foley 
GTD BMW M6 GT3 1'31.063 9.154
24 14 canada Kyle Marcelli 
austria Dominik Baumann 
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'31.113 9.204
25 44 united_states Andy Lally 
united_states John Potter 
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 1'31.406 9.497
26 58 united_states Patrick Long 
denmark Christina Nielsen 
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'32.098 10.189

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