Laguna Seca IMSA: Taylor leads Acura 1-2 in first practice

The 90-minute session was interrupted by two red flags, but the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05’s progress appeared almost serene, as Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque turned 44 laps to set the pace by a commanding margin.

Taylor’s 1min14.400sec lap of the 2.238-mile course was 0.681sec faster than the best effort by Oliver Jarvis in Meyer Shank Racing’s similar Acura.

Meanwhile Tristan Vautier was almost a second behind in the fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, the JDC-Miller MotorSports machine. He was 0.2sec faster than Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani.

The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs were fifth and sixth, although Renger van der Zande in the #01 car had a dramatic looking off-course excursion at Turn 5 that mowed down a WeatherTech signboard at the side of the track. He had to pit for replacement bodywork.

In LMP2, Louis Deletraz topped the speed charts for Tower Motorsports, almost half a second up on Juan Pablo Montoya’s best in the DragonSpeed car, while Era Motorsport’s Ryan Dalziel and Jonathan Bomarito of PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports were third and fourth.

As usual variety of manufacturers marked the GTD Pro / GTD rankings, with Jack Hawksworth eventually emerging on top in the GTD Pro Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 with a 1m23.961sec effort. His nearest rival was WeatherTech Racing’s returnee Daniel Juncadella second in the Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Robby Foley was quickest GTD-class driver in the Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3, less than a tenth faster than Jan Heylen’s Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Second practice is scheduled for 8.55am local (Pacific) time tomorrow.

Practice results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Acura DPi	1'14.400
2	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist	DPi	Acura DPi	1'15.081	0.681
3	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'15.331	0.931
4	31	Pipo Derani Tristan Nunez	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'15.524	1.124
5	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'15.624	1.224
6	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'16.064	1.664
7	8	John Farano Louis Deletraz	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'16.316	1.916
8	81	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'16.798	2.398
9	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'16.824	2.424
10	11	Steven Thomas Jonathan Bomarito	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'16.865	2.465
11	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'18.575	4.175
12	52	Josh Pierson Patrick Kelly	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'18.657	4.257
13	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	1'23.961	9.561
14	79	Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella	GTD PRO	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'24.171	9.771
15	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'24.235	9.835
16	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'24.301	9.901
17	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'24.330	9.930
18	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'24.433	10.033
19	39	Robert Megennis Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'24.470	10.070
20	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'24.489	10.089
21	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	1'24.531	10.131
22	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'24.561	10.161
23	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'24.612	10.212
24	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'24.639	10.239
25	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'24.714	10.314
26	27	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'24.826	10.426
27	42	Marco Holzer Jaden Conwright	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'24.842	10.442
28	28	Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'24.889	10.489
29	32	Dirk Muller Stevan McAleer	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'25.125	10.725
30	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'25.197	10.797
31	51	Ryan Eversley Aidan Read	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'25.367	10.967
32	34	Kyle Washington James Sofronas	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'26.141	11.741
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