IMSA Road America: Acura leads Nissan in opening practice
Dane Cameron drove the #6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 to the top of the times in first practice for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Road America.
The championship leader (along with co-driver Juan Pablo Montoya) lapped the 4.048-mile track in 1min50.007sec to go 0.023sec than Colin Braun’s best effort in the Nissan DPi run by the CORE autosport team, and precisely 0.1sec clear of teammate Ricky Taylor in the #7 Acura.
The closest rivals to Cameron/Montoya on the points table are Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani of Action Express Racing and they were fourth fastest this morning, but the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs have been left gasping by the pace of their Prototype rivals, Nasr lapping some 1.2sec off the pace.
Tristan Vautier in the JDC Miller Motorsports Caddy was fifth, a further few hundreths behind.
Harry Tincknell was fastest Mazda driver, but his #55 RT24-P was over 1.5sec in arrears, marginally faster than Joao Barbosa in the second AXR Cadillac, who was in turn 0.15sec ahead of Oliver Jarvis in the second Mazda.
James French outpaced Matt McMurry by a surprising 1.2sec in the all-Oreca LMP2 battle.
In GT Le Mans, Nick Tandy’s #911 Porsche 911 RSR was fastest by 0.4sec ahead of the #4 Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin, who has been rejoined by Tommy Milner this weekend after the American had to sit out the last two races with a hand injury.
Tom Blomqvist was an encouraging third fastest in the BMW M8 ahead of the second Corvette of Antonio Garcia and the second Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor.
GT Daytona saw Jeroen Bleekemolen’s Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 finish the session P1 but just half a tenth faster than Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan, which in turn was 0.3sec up on Pat Long’s best in the Park Place Motorsport Porscher 911 GT3 R.
Second practice commences at 4.25pm local (Central) time.
Session results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 |  Dane Cameron  Juan Pablo Montoya | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'50.007 | |
| 2 | 54 | Jon Bennett Colin Braun | DPi | Nissan DPi | 1'50.030 | 0.023 |
| 3 | 7 | Ricky Taylor  Helio Castroneves | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'50.107 | 0.100 |
| 4 | 31 | Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'51.241 | 1.234 |
| 5 | 85 |  Mikhail Goikhberg  Tristan Vautier | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'51.276 | 1.269 |
| 6 | 55 | Jonathan Bomarito  Harry Tincknell | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'51.578 | 1.571 |
| 7 | 5 |  Joao Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'51.586 | 1.579 |
| 8 | 77 | Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'51.737 | 1.730 |
| 9 | 84 |  Simon Trummer  Stephen Simpson | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'52.123 | 2.116 |
| 10 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'52.916 | 2.909 |
| 11 | 38 | Cameron Cassels James French | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'53.808 | 3.801 |
| 12 | 52 | Matt McMurry Patrick Kelly | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'55.012 | 5.005 |
| 13 | 911 | Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 2'02.147 | 12.140 |
| 14 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 2'02.544 | 12.537 |
| 15 | 25 | Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 2'02.585 | 12.578 |
| 16 | 3 |  Jan Magnussen  Antonio Garcia | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 2'02.611 | 12.604 |
| 17 | 912 |  Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 2'03.074 | 13.067 |
| 18 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 2'03.255 | 13.248 |
| 19 | 66 | Joey Hand  Dirk Muller | GTLM | Ford GT | 2'03.281 | 13.274 |
| 20 | 67 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook | GTLM | Ford GT | 2'03.344 | 13.337 |
| 21 | 33 | Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 2'06.060 | 16.053 |
| 22 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'06.102 | 16.095 |
| 23 | 73 | Patrick Lindsey Patrick Long | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'06.415 | 16.408 |
| 24 | 14 | Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'06.465 | 16.458 |
| 25 | 91 | Anthony Imperato  Dennis Olsen | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'06.545 | 16.538 |
| 26 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 2'06.569 | 16.562 |
| 27 | 44 | John Potter Andy Lally | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'06.692 | 16.685 |
| 28 | 74 | Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach | GTD | Mercedes-AMG | 2'06.922 | 16.915 |
| 29 | 9 | Matt Campbell Zacharie Robichon | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'06.958 | 16.951 |
| 30 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'07.078 | 17.071 |
| 31 | 76 | Paul Holton Matt Plumb | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 2'07.965 | 17.958 |
| 32 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 2'07.972 | 17.965 |
| 33 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'08.085 | 18.078 |
| 34 | 8 | Parker Chase Ryan Dalziel | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 2'08.241 | 18.234 |
| 35 | 57 | Katherine Legge Ana Beatriz | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'09.344 | 19.337 |
| View full results | ||||||
Previous article
Nasr, Derani "have to believe" in IMSA title chances
Next article
Road America IMSA: Montoya keeps Acura Team Penske on top
About this article
| Series | IMSA |
| Event | Road America |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
24 Hours of Daytona Video Recap
24 Hours of Daytona: Fourth Place for Ferrari
Watch the entire Rolex 24 in just over a minute
The GTE dilemma that IMSA has created for the WEC
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s decision to scrap its GT Le Mans class for 2022 raises the question of whether the FIA World Endurance Championship should phase out GTE cars. But it's a much harder decision than it appears on the surface.
Nine things to watch at the 2021 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona
After a 100-minute sprint race to whet the appetite, the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship gets underway properly this weekend. With plenty of significant changes during the winter, here are the key points you need to keep an eye on
Why Magnussen is relishing a fresh start in sportscars
Having gone over seven years without a race win through spells with McLaren, Renault and Haas, Kevin Magnussen's departure from Formula 1 for IMSA with big-hitters Chip Ganassi Racing could give him what he craves most - a chance of success
Oliver Gavin's Corvette Racing highlights
Oliver Gavin has stepped down from the full-time Corvette Racing line-up after a stellar career with the team spanning nearly 20 years. He looks back on a stint that encompassed, among other successes, five Le Mans 24 Hours victories.
How Tandy joined an exclusive club of endurance legends
Victory at last year's Spa 24 Hours meant Nick Tandy had completed the unofficial sextuple crown of the world's six biggest endurance races, becoming the first Briton to do so. Ahead of his fresh start with Corvette Racing, he explains how he did it…
The 12 greatest Sebring 12 Hours ranked
The 2020 edition of the Florida sportscar classic is finally taking place this weekend, eight months after its traditional date in March. That meant there was plenty of time for Motorsport.com to pour over its previous 67 races and select the best.
Tony Kanaan’s top 10 races – in his own words
The 2004 IndyCar champion and 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan probably hasn’t yet driven his final IndyCar race, but we still asked him for the 10 most significant races of his career. He explained his choices to David Malsher-Lopez.
Why the GTE ruleset looks to have run its course
The GTE ruleset has served sportscar racing in both Europe and the United States well over the past decade. But now there are clear signs that the end of its life is in sight as manufacturer support continues to fade.
