IMSA Long Beach: Acuras blitz their GTP rivals in FP2

GTP

The #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Augusto Farfus visited the Turn 1 run-off 12m into the session, while 20mins later its sister car did the same. Meanwhile Turn 6 proved a trouble spot for the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 and the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06. But it was Renger van der Zande in the Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R who brought out the first red flag after skidding into the Turn 9 runoff.

Minutes after the session resumed, it was Alexander Sims who slid long at Turn 9, but he was able to get the Action Express Racing Caddy back on track without outside aid. With half an hour left to run, the Acuras of MSR and Wayne Taylor Racing were well clear of the field, this time with MSR ahead with a time of 1min11.036sec and separated from each other by 0.239s.

Then Nick Yelloly jumped the #25 into third, ahead of BMW teammate Philipp Eng, and 0.657s off the top, while Bourdais ventured into a runoff but got the Ganassi Caddy turned around to resume without causing a red.

With just under 20m remaining, Filipe Albuquerque broke into the 1m10s, with a 1:10.859s, and very nearly replicated it on his next lap, to move the WTR to the top by 0.177s.

In the final 10 minutes, Sims slotted the AXR Cadillac between the two BMWs to claim fourth, while Felipe Nasr’s #7 Porsche moved into sixth – soon to be displaced by teammate Mathieu Jaminet.

But the big news was at the top of the class, as Tom Blomqvist delivered a 1m10.391s to claim top spot by 0.323s, despite Albuquerque improving his time. That left him an astonishing 1.3s ahead of the fastest non-Acura, the #25 BMW which Connor De Phillippi slid into the Turn 9 runoff in the final five minutes.

GTD Pro / GTD

The Acura NSX of Racers Edge Motorsports led GTD and indeed the entire 20-car GT field until with 12m remaining, Jack Hawksworth vaulted his GTD Pro Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F to the top with a 1m18.341s. He then sliced almost half a second off that time to lead his nearest rival, Patrick Pilet in the Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R by 0.441sec a gap which Pilet shaved down to 0.424s.

A late flyer from Antonio Garcia ensured the Corvette Racing C8.R ended the session in third place, 0.553s off the top and less than a tenth ahead of, with Ross Gunn in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.

Racers Edge remained top of GTD, followed by Seb Priaulx in the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, Marco Sorensen in the pro-am HoR Aston and the #12 Vasser Sullivan Leuxs. Frederik Schandorff was fifth in class in the Inception Racing McLaren 720S, ahead of fifth fastest in GTD Pro, Daniel Juncadella’s WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3.

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun	GTP	Acura ARX-06	52	1'10.391
2	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	GTP	Acura ARX-06	47	1'10.714	0.323
3	25	Connor de Phillippi Nick Yelloly	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	46	1'11.693	1.302
4	31	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	51	1'11.816	1.425
5	24	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	45	1'12.009	1.618
6	6	Nick Tandy Mathieu Jaminet	GTP	Porsche 963	45	1'12.167	1.776
7	7	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr	GTP	Porsche 963	44	1'12.185	1.794
8	1	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	35	1'12.271	1.880
9	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	47	1'17.876	7.485
10	9	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	41	1'18.300	7.909
11	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	51	1'18.429	8.038
12	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	46	1'18.511	8.120
13	93	Ashton Harrison Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	50	1'18.516	8.125
14	80	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	51	1'18.572	8.181
15	27	Roman De Angelis Marco Sorensen	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	55	1'18.580	8.189
16	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	50	1'18.641	8.250
17	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	54	1'18.689	8.298
18	79	Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon	GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	61	1'18.689	8.298
19	96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	52	1'18.755	8.364
20	78	Mikhail Goikhberg Loris Spinelli	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	55	1'18.822	8.431
21	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	52	1'18.858	8.467
22	97	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	51	1'18.865	8.474
23	32	Mike Skeen Mikael Grenier	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	51	1'19.039	8.648
24	91	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	48	1'19.067	8.676
25	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	47	1'19.128	8.737
26	66	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	53	1'19.169	8.778
27	77	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	51	1'19.277	8.886
28	92	Alec Udell Jeroen Bleekemolen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	42	1'19.526	9.135
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