Laguna Seca IMSA: Taylor leads Montoya in Acura 1-2
Ricky Taylor beat Acura teammate Juan Pablo Montoya to pole for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's Laguna Seca round, as BMW headed GTLM and Paul Miller Racing grabbed GTD honors.
Taylor set a superb 1min15.035sec lap in the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 to eclipse Montoya by more than 0.3sec and clinch his first pole position of the year.
Brother Jordan Taylor was fastest of the Cadillacs, slotting the Wayne Taylor Racing DPi-V.R into third ahead of the quicker of the two Mazdas, the #77 driven by Tristan Nunez.
The second RT24-P of local boy Jonathan Bomarito will start sixth, on the outside of Action Express Racing’s faster Cadillac entry, driven by Felipe Nasr. Filipe Albuquerque was seventh in the other AXR Caddy, well clear of the two JDC-Miller Motorsports entries.
Jon Bennett's effort in the CORE autosport Nissan DPi was slower than both of the two LMP2 entries, the quickest of which was the Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca of Kyle Masson.
GT Le Mans
#24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE, GTLM: Jesse Krohn, John Edwards
Photo by: Richard Dole / LAT Images
Jesse Krohn set a 1min21.557sec lap in the #24 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-run BMW M8 GTE that survived Dirk Muller’s attempts to displace him, the German's Ford GT coming up 0.127sec short.
Krohn’s teammate Blomqvist got to third place, 0.334sec away, before pitting his BMW, while Laurens Vanthoor will start fourth in the #912 Porsche 911 RSR after setting a time 0.385sec from P1.
Ryan Briscoe ran off the road at the Corkscrew on what should have been his best lap in the second Ford, but his previous best was still enough to eclipse both Corvette C7.Rs.
Nick Tandy spun the #911 Porsche out of the Corkscrew and then reversed down the hill so he could rejoin in a safe place without causing any disruption to his rivals. However, he will start last in class.
GT Daytona
#73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, GTD: Patrick Long, Patrick Lindsey
Photo by: Charles Bradley
Patrick Lindsey had a nasty off in the Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with eight minutes to go in the GTD session, and that brought out the red flags.
The #73 car clipped the inside curb at Turn 10, drifted out to the exit curb and then spun across the track where it made heavy contact with a concrete barrier. Lindsey walked to the rescue vehicle unaided but the car appeared that it would be difficult to repair in time for Sunday's race.
At the time the session was stopped, Trent Hindman had just set fastest time in the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3, edging Cooper MacNeil’s Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 by 0.055sec, with Zacharie Robichon’s Pfaff Porsche and Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 on identical times in third and fourth.
However, the session was reset with four minutes on the clock, and a great final lap by Corey Lewis saw him jump his Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to the top of the times by 0.101sec.
Matt Plumb clocked sixth in Compass Racing’s McLaren 720S ahead of the second Acura of Christina Nielsen and the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Ben Keating.
Session results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Ricky Taylor  Helio Castroneves | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'15.035 | |
| 2 | 6 | Dane Cameron  Juan Pablo Montoya | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'15.343 | 0.308 |
| 3 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'15.488 | 0.453 |
| 4 | 77 |  Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'15.517 | 0.482 |
| 5 | 31 | Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'15.610 | 0.575 |
| 6 | 55 | Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'15.728 | 0.693 |
| 7 | 5 |  Joao Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'15.757 | 0.722 |
| 8 | 85 |  Mikhail Goikhberg  Tristan Vautier | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.176 | 1.141 |
| 9 | 84 |  Simon Trummer  Stephen Simpson | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.348 | 1.313 |
| 10 | 38 | Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'16.817 | 1.782 |
| 11 | 52 | Matt McMurry Dalton Kellett | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'17.618 | 2.583 |
| 12 | 54 | Jon Bennett Colin Braun | DPi | Nissan DPi | 1'17.661 | 2.626 |
| 13 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'21.557 | 6.522 |
| 14 | 66 | Joey Hand  Dirk Muller | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'21.684 | 6.649 |
| 15 | 25 | Connor de Phillippi Tom Blomqvist | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'21.891 | 6.856 |
| 16 | 912 |  Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'21.942 | 6.907 |
| 17 | 67 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'21.999 | 6.964 |
| 18 | 3 |  Jan Magnussen  Antonio Garcia | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'22.026 | 6.991 |
| 19 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'22.161 | 7.126 |
| 20 | 911 | Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'22.295 | 7.260 |
| 21 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'24.962 | 9.927 |
| 22 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'25.063 | 10.028 |
| 23 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'25.118 | 10.083 |
| 24 | 9 | Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'25.165 | 10.130 |
| 25 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'25.165 | 10.130 |
| 26 | 76 | Paul Holton Matt Plumb | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'25.204 | 10.169 |
| 27 | 57 | Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'25.311 | 10.276 |
| 28 | 33 | Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'25.678 | 10.643 |
| 29 | 14 | Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'26.180 | 11.145 |
| 30 | 44 | John Potter Andy Lally | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'26.414 | 11.379 |
| 31 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'26.466 | 11.431 |
| 32 | 73 | Patrick Lindsey Patrick Long | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 0.000 | |
| View full results | ||||||
Laguna Seca IMSA: Taylor heads Acura 1-2 in FP3
Laguna Seca IMSA: Acuras score 1-2, Ford wins GTLM
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