Ricky Taylor sent Acura Team Penske to the top of the times in opening practice for Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Taylor, who along with co-driver Helio Castroneves has won the last three Prototype rounds in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, used the #7 Acura ARX-05 to lap the fabulous 2.54-mile road course in 70.086sec.
However, the majority of the session saw the car in the hands of third driver for the 10-hour race, Alexander Rossi, who hasn’t driven the Acura since January’s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and who has no previous experience of Road Atlanta.
Taylor’s best effort was just 0.068sec faster than Oliver Jarvis’ in the #77 Mazda RT24-P and 0.15sec ahead of the second Mazda of Jonathan Bomarito.
Swiftest of the Cadillac DPi-V.R drivers was Felipe Nasr in the Action Express Racing entry, just under quarter-second from top spot, with Sebastien Bourdais’ JDC-Miller machine fifth, a tenth quicker than Gabriel Aubry in the sister car.
Tower Motorsport by Starworks led LMP2 thanks to Mikkel Jensen, almost half a second faster than Scott Huffaker in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport car.
Laurens Vanthoor and Nick Tandy formed a Porsche 911 RSR 1-2 in GT Le Mans but getting seat time for the third drivers for the squad – Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell naturally became priority.
Connor De Phillippi was third for BMW, 0.1 ahead of Antonio Garcia’s Corvette C8.R.
In GT Daytona, Bryan Sellers’ Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan led from Andy Lally’s similar Magnus Racing machine, with Darren Turner an impressive third in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.
Second practice begins at 3.45pm local (Eastern) time.
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | | DPi | Acura DPi | 36 | 1’10.086 | |
2 | 77 | | DPi | Mazda DPi | 30 | 1’10.154 | 0.068 |
3 | 55 | | DPi | Mazda DPi | 30 | 1’10.243 | 0.157 |
4 | 31 | | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 32 | 1’10.326 | 0.240 |
5 | 5 | | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 39 | 1’10.398 | 0.312 |
6 | 85 | | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 34 | 1’10.505 | 0.419 |
7 | 6 | | DPi | Acura DPi | 33 | 1’10.529 | 0.443 |
8 | 10 | | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 29 | 1’10.872 | 0.786 |
9 | 8 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 37 | 1’11.078 | 0.992 |
10 | 52 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 41 | 1’11.553 | 1.467 |
11 | 38 | James McGuire | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 34 | 1’11.569 | 1.483 |
12 | 51 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 31 | 1’14.364 | 4.278 |
13 | 912 | | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 37 | 1’17.008 | 6.922 |
14 | 911 | | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 34 | 1’17.494 | 7.408 |
15 | 25 | | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 38 | 1’17.607 | 7.521 |
16 | 3 | | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 32 | 1’17.755 | 7.669 |
17 | 24 | | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 34 | 1’17.871 | 7.785 |
18 | 4 | | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 33 | 1’18.698 | 8.612 |
19 | 48 | | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 29 | 1’19.946 | 9.860 |
20 | 44 | | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 34 | 1’20.119 | 10.033 |
21 | 23 | | GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 35 | 1’20.415 | 10.329 |
22 | 14 | | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 32 | 1’20.461 | 10.375 |
23 | 16 | | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 34 | 1’20.484 | 10.398 |
24 | 96 | | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 30 | 1’20.501 | 10.415 |
25 | 86 | | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 34 | 1’20.601 | 10.515 |
26 | 12 | | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 33 | 1’20.636 | 10.550 |
27 | 57 | | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 30 | 1’20.759 | 10.673 |
28 | 74 | | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 32 | 1’20.811 | 10.725 |
29 | 63 | | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 31 | 1’20.871 | 10.785 |
30 | 9 | | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 31 | 1’21.090 | 11.004 |
31 | 30 | | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 35 | 1’21.108 | 11.022 |
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