Laguna Seca IMSA: Montoya edges Derani in second practice
Juan Pablo Montoya wheeled his Acura ARX-05 to the top of the times in second practice for this weekend's Laguna Seca IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round, beating the Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani by a mere 0.078sec.
Acura Team Penske’s Montoya set a best lap of 1min16.003sec around the 2.258-mile course to nudge past Derani, while morning pacesetter Oliver Jarvis was 0.4sec down in the best of the Mazda RT24-Ps.
Joao Barbosa (AXR) and Stephen Simpson (JDC-Miller) made it three Cadillacs in the top five, narrowly eclipsing Helio Castroneves’ best effort in the second Acura.
Colin Braun’s best effort in the Nissan DPi of CORE autosport was enough to remain within a second of pacesetter Montoya and also nip ahead of Jordan Taylor’s best in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.
The LMP2 two-car battle saw Kyle Masson’s Performance Tech Motorsport Oreca outpace the similar machine of PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ Dalton Kellett by 0.45sec.
Corvette Racing, still seeking its 100th IMSA win and its first of 2019, topped the times in GT Le Mans, with the #3 of championship aspirants (and defending champions) Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen heading teammate Oliver Gavin by barely more than a tenth of a second.
Third was the Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet, almost four-tenths slower but well ahead of Dirk Muller in the faster of the two Ford GTs, while Earl Bamber's Porsche, the two BMWs and Ryan Briscoe's Ford closed out the eight-car class.
The Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Bryan Sellers again led the GT Daytona ranks, but he had less than one tenth of a second margin over Matt Plumb’s Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3 – while Andy Lally’s Magnus Racing Lambo was even closer behind.
Toni Vilander in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 was fourth, but Ben Keating’s best effort in the Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 was restricted to sixth by Mario Farnbacher, who got the title-contending Acura NSX GT3 of Meyer Shank Racing into fifth.
Third practice begins at 8:45am local (Pacific) time on Saturday.
Session results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 |  Dane Cameron  Juan Pablo Montoya | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'16.003 | |
| 2 | 31 |  Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.081 | 0.078 |
| 3 | 77 |  Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'16.421 | 0.418 |
| 4 | 5 |  Joao Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.850 | 0.847 |
| 5 | 84 |  Simon Trummer  Stephen Simpson | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.871 | 0.868 |
| 6 | 7 | Ricky Taylor Helio Castroneves | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'16.907 | 0.904 |
| 7 | 54 | Jon Bennett Colin Braun | DPi | Nissan DPi | 1'16.929 | 0.926 |
| 8 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'17.013 | 1.010 |
| 9 | 85 |  Mikhail Goikhberg  Tristan Vautier | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'17.176 | 1.173 |
| 10 | 55 | Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'17.262 | 1.259 |
| 11 | 38 | Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'18.208 | 2.205 |
| 12 | 52 | Matt McMurry Dalton Kellett | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'18.687 | 2.684 |
| 13 | 3 |  Jan Magnussen  Antonio Garcia | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'22.833 | 6.830 |
| 14 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'22.963 | 6.960 |
| 15 | 911 | Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'23.351 | 7.348 |
| 16 | 66 | Joey Hand  Dirk Muller | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'23.730 | 7.727 |
| 17 | 912 |  Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'23.737 | 7.734 |
| 18 | 25 | Connor de Phillippi Tom Blomqvist | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'23.907 | 7.904 |
| 19 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'24.124 | 8.121 |
| 20 | 67 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'24.201 | 8.198 |
| 21 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'25.246 | 9.243 |
| 22 | 76 | Paul Holton Matt Plumb | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'25.323 | 9.320 |
| 23 | 44 | John Potter Andy Lally | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'25.395 | 9.392 |
| 24 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'25.578 | 9.575 |
| 25 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'25.622 | 9.619 |
| 26 | 33 | Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'25.726 | 9.723 |
| 27 | 73 | Patrick Lindsey Patrick Long | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'25.773 | 9.770 |
| 28 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'25.863 | 9.860 |
| 29 | 57 | Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'25.943 | 9.940 |
| 30 | 9 | Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'26.521 | 10.518 |
| 31 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'26.884 | 10.881 |
| 32 | 14 | Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'27.223 | 11.220 |
| View full results | ||||||
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