Laguna Seca IMSA: Taylor leads Acura 1-2 in first practice
Ricky Taylor set a brilliant flying lap in opening practice for this weekend’s fourth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Laguna Seca to lead the Prototype field.
Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images
The 90-minute session was interrupted by two red flags, but the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05’s progress appeared almost serene, as Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque turned 44 laps to set the pace by a commanding margin.
Taylor’s 1min14.400sec lap of the 2.238-mile course was 0.681sec faster than the best effort by Oliver Jarvis in Meyer Shank Racing’s similar Acura.
Meanwhile Tristan Vautier was almost a second behind in the fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, the JDC-Miller MotorSports machine. He was 0.2sec faster than Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani.
The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs were fifth and sixth, although Renger van der Zande in the #01 car had a dramatic looking off-course excursion at Turn 5 that mowed down a WeatherTech signboard at the side of the track. He had to pit for replacement bodywork.
In LMP2, Louis Deletraz topped the speed charts for Tower Motorsports, almost half a second up on Juan Pablo Montoya’s best in the DragonSpeed car, while Era Motorsport’s Ryan Dalziel and Jonathan Bomarito of PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports were third and fourth.
As usual variety of manufacturers marked the GTD Pro / GTD rankings, with Jack Hawksworth eventually emerging on top in the GTD Pro Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 with a 1m23.961sec effort. His nearest rival was WeatherTech Racing’s returnee Daniel Juncadella second in the Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Robby Foley was quickest GTD-class driver in the Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3, less than a tenth faster than Jan Heylen’s Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Second practice is scheduled for 8.55am local (Pacific) time tomorrow.
Practice results:
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 |
Ricky Taylor
Filipe Albuquerque |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'14.400 | |
2 | 60 |
Oliver Jarvis
Tom Blomqvist |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'15.081 | 0.681 |
3 | 5 |
Tristan Vautier
Richard Westbrook |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'15.331 | 0.931 |
4 | 31 |
Pipo Derani
Tristan Nunez |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'15.524 | 1.124 |
5 | 01 |
Renger van der Zande
Sébastien Bourdais |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'15.624 | 1.224 |
6 | 02 |
Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.064 | 1.664 |
7 | 8 |
John Farano
Louis Deletraz |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'16.316 | 1.916 |
8 | 81 |
Henrik Hedman
Juan Pablo Montoya |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'16.798 | 2.398 |
9 | 18 |
Dwight Merriman
Ryan Dalziel |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'16.824 | 2.424 |
10 | 11 |
Steven Thomas
Jonathan Bomarito |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'16.865 | 2.465 |
11 | 20 |
Dennis Andersen
Anders Fjordbach |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'18.575 | 4.175 |
12 | 52 |
Josh Pierson
Patrick Kelly |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'18.657 | 4.257 |
13 | 14 |
Jack Hawksworth
Ben Barnicoat |
GTD PRO | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'23.961 | 9.561 |
14 | 79 |
Cooper MacNeil
Daniel Juncadella |
GTD PRO | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'24.171 | 9.771 |
15 | 96 |
Robby Foley
Bill Auberlen |
GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'24.235 | 9.835 |
16 | 16 |
Ryan Hardwick
Jan Heylen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'24.301 | 9.901 |
17 | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo
Aaron Telitz |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'24.330 | 9.930 |
18 | 9 |
Matt Campbell
Mathieu Jaminet |
GTD PRO | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'24.433 | 10.033 |
19 | 39 |
Robert Megennis
Jeff Westphal |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'24.470 | 10.070 |
20 | 1 |
Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow |
GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'24.489 | 10.089 |
21 | 25 |
Connor de Phillippi
John Edwards |
GTD PRO | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'24.531 | 10.131 |
22 | 70 |
Brendan Iribe
Frederik Schandorff |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'24.561 | 10.161 |
23 | 57 |
Russell Ward
Philip Ellis |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'24.612 | 10.212 |
24 | 23 |
Ross Gunn
Alex Riberas |
GTD PRO | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'24.639 | 10.239 |
25 | 3 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor |
GTD PRO | Corvette C8.R GTD | 1'24.714 | 10.314 |
26 | 27 |
Roman De Angelis
Maxime Martin |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'24.826 | 10.426 |
27 | 42 |
Marco Holzer
Jaden Conwright |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'24.842 | 10.442 |
28 | 28 |
Michael de Quesada
Daniel Morad |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'24.889 | 10.489 |
29 | 32 |
Dirk Muller
Stevan McAleer |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'25.125 | 10.725 |
30 | 99 |
Rob Ferriol
Katherine Legge |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'25.197 | 10.797 |
31 | 51 |
Ryan Eversley
Aidan Read |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'25.367 | 10.967 |
32 | 34 |
Kyle Washington
James Sofronas |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'26.141 | 11.741 |
View full results |
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