Sebring 12 Hours: Taylor’s Acura on top in night practice

Taylor lapped the 3.74-mile airport course in 1min48.358sec, to go 0.177sec faster than Pipo Derani’s Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. This was despite Taylor’s teammate Helio Castroneves requiring a new nose on the car after a minor brush with a tire wall.

Mazda’s enduro ‘third man’ Olivier Pla turned the #77 Mazda RT24-P’s fastest time, just 0.082sec behind Derani and 0.223sec ahead of Ryan Briscoe in the Wayne Taylor Racing Caddy, with Dane Cameron fifth fastest in the second Acura albeit almost 1sec off its pace-setting sister car.

Mikkel Jensen put Starworks at the head of the LMP2 class, two seconds ahead of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Simon Trummer and 2.3 ahead of the Inter Europol machine of Naveen Rao.

The Porsche 911s maintained their dominance of GT Le Mans this weekend, Nick Tandy lapping 0.030sec than teammate Laurens Vanthoor, with Connor De Phillippi’s BMW M8 in third. Oliver Gavin had a minor off in the #4 Corvette C8.R but was only 0.65sec off top time in class.

Franck Perera kept the Grasser Racing Team at the top of the GT Daytona class, with a 2min02.510sec lap in the Lamborghini Huracan, but Lawson Aschenbach’s Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 was just 0.13sec behind and only one-tenth faster than Ian James in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.

Nick Yelloly, who is subbing for Bill Auberlen in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6, was an impressive sixth fastest despite zero previous experience of the track.

Qualifying for the Sebring 12 Hours begins at 10.15am local time on Friday.

Session results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Class	Car	Laps	Time	Gap	mph
1	7	Hélio Castroneves  Ricky Taylor  Alexander Rossi	DPi	Acura DPi	33	1'48.358		124.255
2	31	Felipe Nasr  Pipo Derani  Gabby Chaves	DPi	Cadillac DPi	43	1'48.535	0.177	124.052
3	77	Oliver Jarvis  Tristan Nunez  Olivier Pla	DPi	Mazda DPi	36	1'48.617	0.259	123.958
4	10	Renger van der Zande  Ryan Briscoe  Scott Dixon	DPi	Cadillac DPi	32	1'48.840	0.482	123.705
5	6	Juan Pablo Montoya  Dane Cameron  Simon Pagenaud	DPi	Acura DPi	30	1'49.280	0.922	123.206
6	5	Sebastien Bourdais  Tristan Vautier  Loïc Duval	DPi	Cadillac DPi	30	1'49.379	1.021	123.095
7	55	Jonathan Bomarito  Harry Tincknell  Ryan Hunter-Reay	DPi	Mazda DPi	36	1'49.449	1.091	123.016
8	85	Matheus Leist  Stephen Simpson  Scott Andrews	DPi	Cadillac DPi	36	1'49.615	1.257	122.830
9	8	John Farano  Mikkel Jensen  David Heinemeier Hansson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	40	1'50.127	1.769	122.259
10	52	Patrick Kelly  Simon Trummer  Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	42	1'52.063	3.705	120.147
11	51	Jakub Smiechowski  Naveen Rao  Matthew Bell	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	35	1'52.412	4.054	119.774
12	38	Don Yount  Patrick Byrne  Guy Cosmo	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	28	1'56.019	7.661	116.050
13	911	Nick Tandy  Frédéric Makowiecki  Earl Bamber	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	39	1'58.170	9.812	113.938
14	912	Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor  Neel Jani	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	41	1'58.200	9.842	113.909
15	25	Bruno Spengler  Connor de Phillippi  Colton Herta	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	39	1'58.461	10.103	113.658
16	3	Antonio Garcia  Jordan Taylor  Nicky Catsburg	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	35	1'58.537	10.179	113.585
17	24	Jesse Krohn  John Edwards  Augusto Farfus	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	42	1'58.677	10.319	113.451
18	4	Oliver Gavin  Tommy Milner  Marcel Fässler	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	34	1'58.819	10.461	113.315
19	11	Richard Heistand  Steijn Schothorst  Franck Perera	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	35	2'02.510	14.152	109.901
20	74	Gar Robinson  Lawson Aschenbach  Marc Miller	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	29	2'02.640	14.282	109.785
21	23	Ian James  Roman De Angelis  Darren Turner	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	33	2'02.738	14.380	109.697
22	30	Rob Ferriol  Andrew Davis  Pierre Kaffer	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	37	2'02.834	14.476	109.611
23	63	Cooper MacNeil  Alessandro Balzan  Jeff Westphal	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	31	2'02.903	14.545	109.550
24	96	Nick Yelloly  Robby Foley  Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	33	2'02.945	14.587	109.512
25	16	Ryan Hardwick  Patrick Long  Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	37	2'02.963	14.605	109.496
26	86	Mario Farnbacher  Matthew McMurry  Shinya Michimi	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	29	2'03.136	14.778	109.343
27	14	Jack Hawksworth  Aaron Telitz  Kyle Kirkwood	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	38	2'03.191	14.833	109.294
28	12	Frankie Montecalvo  Townsend Bell  Michael de Quesada	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	41	2'03.316	14.958	109.183
29	44	Andy Lally  John Potter  Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	21	2'03.492	15.134	109.027
30	48	Bryan Sellers  Madison Snow  Corey Lewis	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	28	2'03.764	15.406	108.788
31	57	Trent Hindman  Mikhail Goikhberg  Joey Hand	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	32	2'03.993	15.635	108.583