Watkins Glen IMSA: Acura sets pace again in second practice

The Andretti Autosport LMP3 entry caused a red flag, while there were other spins but without session stoppage for other LMP3 cars, as well as Frits van Eerd in the Racing Team Nederland LMP2 car and Luis Perez Companc in AF Corse’s GTD-class Ferrari 488.

But the DPi class didn’t take long to gain a familiar look, with yesterday’s pacesetting Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05, driven by Oliver Jarvis on top, again chased by Renger van der Zande in the Chip Ganassi Racing #01 Cadillac DPi-V.R and Ricky Taylor in Wayne Taylor Racing’s Acura. With 50mins down, the big difference compared with yesterday was that the top trio were covered by a mere 0.15sec.

That’s when the second red flag of the session came out. Kyffin Simpson in the Gradient Racing Acura NSX and Katherine Legge’s Team Hardpoint Porsche 911 GT3 R were off at Turn 6.

The retrieval of those cars and the repair of the wall took almost 15mins, and when action resumed, van der Zande turned a 1min31.232sec to move to the top of the times, before handing off to Sebastien Bourdais. Meanwhile, their teammate Earl Bamber made it a Ganassi 1-2, with a lap of the 3.4-mile track just 0.18sec slower.

With 20mins to go, there was another red flag, as the MLT Motorsports car of Josh Sarchet went off at the Bus Stop chicane and needed restarting.

The recommencement of track activities saw Filipe Albuquerque in the WTR Acura set by far the fastest time of the weekend, his 1min30.358sec run putting him on top by 0.874sec.

However, Bamber delivered a very impressive 1min30.096, and then yesterday’s pacesetter Tom Blomqvist twice ducked under the 90sec barrier his best effort producing a 1min29.581sec in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura. Bamber responded but came up 0.239sec short.

Albuquerque came a lot closer, punching in a 1min29.672sec, followed by a 1min29.607 – a mere 0.026sec slower than Blomqvist.

Six tenths behind Bamber was teammate Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 CGR Caddy, while Olivier Pla was fifth in the Action Express Racing Cadillac. Jimmie Johnson was seventh in the sister car, some 2.3sec off top spot and survived a huge spin in the dying minutes.

Giedo van der Garde in the Racing Team Nederland entry emerged with top LMP2 time, almost 0.8sec ahead of Mikkel Jensen of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, and the impressive Sebastian Montoya of DragonSpeed, while Jonathan Bomarito was a further 0.4sec back in the second PR1 car.

Sean Crech Motorsport’s Ligier set the fastest time in LMP3, 0.4sec ahead of Dakota Dickerson’s best in the recently stricken MLT car, with Colin Braun third for CORE autosport, and Matt Bell in the Forty7 Motorsports.

GTD Pro was led by Vasser Sullivan Racing’s #14 car piloted by Ben Barnicoat, ahead of Ross Gunn in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage and Mathieu Jaminet’s Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

In GTD, Stevan McAleer put the Team Korthoff Mercedes AMG GT3 on top, a mere 0.032sec ahead of Turner Motorsports’ BMW M4, with Simpson’s stricken Gradient Acura retaining third ahead of Jaden Conwright in the NTE/SSR Lamborghini Huracan.

Qualifying begins at 1.20pm local (Eastern) time.

Cla	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist	DPi	Acura DPi	36	1'29.581
2	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Acura DPi	35	1'29.607	0.026
3	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn	DPi	Cadillac DPi	41	1'29.820	0.239
4	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais	DPi	Cadillac DPi	37	1'30.418	0.837
5	Olivier Pla Pipo Derani Mike Conway	DPi	Cadillac DPi	39	1'30.529	0.948
6	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval	DPi	Cadillac DPi	38	1'31.302	1.721
7	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	33	1'31.878	2.297
8	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Dylan Murry	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	39	1'32.771	3.190
9	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	39	1'33.555	3.974
10	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	36	1'33.580	3.999
11	Steven Thomas Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	43	1'33.986	4.405
12	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	39	1'34.406	4.825
13	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	43	1'34.507	4.926
14	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	42	1'34.786	5.205
15	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Lance Willsey	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	38	1'39.669	10.088
16	Dakota Dickerson Josh Sarchet Tyler Maxson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	23	1'40.067	10.486
17	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	29	1'40.378	10.797
18	Anthony Mantella Matthew Bell Wayne Boyd	LMP3	Duqueine D08	29	1'40.598	11.017
19	Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Gabby Chaves	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	33	1'40.701	11.120
20	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	35	1'40.769	11.188
21	Daniel Goldburg Rasmus Lindh Cameron Shields	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	39	1'40.866	11.285
22	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	36	1'41.172	11.591
23	Ugo De Danny Formal Dillon Machavern	LMP3	Duqueine D08	33	1'41.508	11.927
24	Orey Fidani Kyle Marcelli Lars Kern	LMP3	Duqueine D08	39	1'41.744	12.163
25	Nico Varrone Max Hanratty James Vance	LMP3	Duqueine D08	35	1'43.402	13.821
26	Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	29	1'45.338	15.757
27	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	32	1'45.388	15.807
28	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	35	1'45.420	15.839
29	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	34	1'45.476	15.895
30	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	34	1'45.496	15.915
31	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	29	1'45.516	15.935
32	Cooper MacNeil Maro Engel Mikael Grenier	GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	36	1'45.707	16.126
33	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	GTD PRO	Ferrari 488 GT3	37	1'45.715	16.134
34	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	23	1'45.742	16.161
35	Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	34	1'45.844	16.263
36	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	35	1'45.854	16.273
37	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	34	1'45.999	16.418
38	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	38	1'46.061	16.480
39	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	33	1'46.092	16.511
40	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	26	1'46.251	16.670
41	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	37	1'46.285	16.704
42	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	34	1'46.290	16.709
43	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	35	1'46.291	16.710
44	Jon Miller Paul Holton Patrick Gallagher	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	30	1'46.314	16.733
45	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin Ian James	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	34	1'46.343	16.762
46	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	35	1'46.360	16.779
47	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	23	1'46.585	17.004
48	Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	38	1'46.693	17.112
View full results