Laguna Seca IMSA: Taylor heads Acura 1-2 in FP3
Acura Team Penske maintained its supremacy in third practice for this weekend's Laguna Seca IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round, with Ricky Taylor setting the pace in the #7 car.
Taylor laid down a benchmark of 1m15.497s early on in the one-hour Saturday morning session, but the #7 Acura caused a red flag when Helio Castroneves beached the pace-setting ARX-05 in the gravel at the top of the Corkscrew.
Castroneves avoided picking up any significant damage, though, and the car was back out for the final part of the session, as championship leader Juan Pablo Montoya made a late jump up to second in the sister #6 machine with a 1m15.857s effort.
Best of the rest was the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, which has been boosted by Balance of Performance adjustments for this round, with Renger van der Zande ending up 0.538s off the pace in third.
Oliver Jarvis's early benchmark behind the wheel of the #77 Mazda RT24-P was enough for fourth in the end, ahead of the #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque and the second of the Joest-run Mazdas, the #55 car of Harry Tincknell.
The title-contending #31 AXR Cadillac ended up down in ninth, with ex-Formula 1 racer Felipe Nasr's best effort putting that car 1.104s off the pace.
Kyle Masson's time of 1m18.251s was enough to put Performance Tech ahead of sole LMP2 rival PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.
Ford set the pace in GT Le Mans with Richard Westbrook setting a 1m22.034s in the #67 car, 0.230s ahead of Tom Blomqvist's best effort in the #24 BMW M8 GTE.
Dirk Muller made it two Fords inside the top three in the #66 GT, ahead of Oliver Gavin in the quicker of the Corvette C7.Rs, while both Porsche 911 RSRs ended up propping up the class order in seventh and eighth places.
Turner Motorsports set the pace in GT Daytona courtesy of Robby Foley's 1m24.523s effort in the #96 BMW M6 GT3, a little under two tenths clear of Corey Lewis in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
Andy Lally was third-fastest in Magnus Racing's Lambo ahead of the points-leading Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 of Trent Hindman.
Session results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Ricky Taylor  Helio Castroneves | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'15.497 | |
| 2 | 6 | Dane Cameron  Juan Pablo Montoya | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'15.857 | 0.360 |
| 3 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.035 | 0.538 |
| 4 | 77 |  Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'16.088 | 0.591 |
| 5 | 5 |  Joao Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.194 | 0.697 |
| 6 | 55 | Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'16.296 | 0.799 |
| 7 | 85 |  Mikhail Goikhberg  Tristan Vautier | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.311 | 0.814 |
| 8 | 54 | Jon Bennett Colin Braun | DPi | Nissan DPi | 1'16.460 | 0.963 |
| 9 | 31 | Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.601 | 1.104 |
| 10 | 84 |  Simon Trummer  Stephen Simpson | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.978 | 1.481 |
| 11 | 38 | Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'18.251 | 2.754 |
| 12 | 52 | Matt McMurry Dalton Kellett | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'19.085 | 3.588 |
| 13 | 67 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'22.034 | 6.537 |
| 14 | 25 | Connor de Phillippi Tom Blomqvist | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'22.264 | 6.767 |
| 15 | 66 | Joey Hand  Dirk Muller | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'22.518 | 7.021 |
| 16 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'22.567 | 7.070 |
| 17 | 3 |  Jan Magnussen  Antonio Garcia | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'22.635 | 7.138 |
| 18 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'22.729 | 7.232 |
| 19 | 911 | Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'22.839 | 7.342 |
| 20 | 912 |  Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'23.058 | 7.561 |
| 21 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'24.523 | 9.026 |
| 22 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'24.720 | 9.223 |
| 23 | 44 | John Potter Andy Lally | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'24.960 | 9.463 |
| 24 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'25.061 | 9.564 |
| 25 | 33 | Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'25.070 | 9.573 |
| 26 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'25.127 | 9.630 |
| 27 | 9 | Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'25.159 | 9.662 |
| 28 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'25.210 | 9.713 |
| 29 | 14 | Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'25.285 | 9.788 |
| 30 | 76 | Paul Holton Matt Plumb | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'25.344 | 9.847 |
| 31 | 57 | Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'25.434 | 9.937 |
| 32 | 73 | Patrick Lindsey Patrick Long | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 0.000 | |
| View full results | ||||||
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About this article
| Series | IMSA |
| Event | Laguna Seca |
| Author | Jamie Klein |
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