Road America IMSA: Jarvis tops incident-packed first practice

The session started with a bang, as Pipo Derani was forced to bail out of the #22 ESM Nissan DPi as it spectacularly erupted in flames on its out lap due to a fuel pressure issue. He was singed but otherwise unhurt.

A second red flag was later caused by the #33 Mercedes of Ben Keating going off heavily at Turn 8.

Stephen Simpson set the early pace at 1m52.816s, 0.152s ahead of recent pacesetter Colin Braun’s similar LMP2 Oreca. Felipe Nasr split them on 1m52.957s in his #31 Action Express Cadillac.

Scott Sharp then hit the top of the times in the #2 ESM Nissan with a 1m52.647s, despite a turbo boost issue, before Oliver Jarvis took over P1 with a 1m52.627s.

Jarvis retained top spot until the finish, ahead of Sharp, Simpson, Nasr and Braun.

Patrick Pilet, Porsche

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Porsche leads BMW in GTLM

Patrick Pilet’s #911 Porsche 911 RSR dominated the session in GTLM, recording a 2m04.082s early on that proved unbeatable by class rivals.

Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia made substantial improvements late on to take second in class, working down to 2m04.274s. Dirk Muller was the fastest Ford GT in third, the #66 ahead of the #24 BMW M8 of John Edwards. Oliver Gavin (Chevy) and Earl Bamber (Porsche) were next up.

Andy Lally, Audi

Photo by: Jake Galstad / LAT Images

Magnus Audi fastest in GTD

In GT Daytona, Andy Lally led the way on 2m07.048s in his #44 Magnus Racing Audi, a tenth clear of Jack Hawksworth’s #15 Lexus RC F. Jorg Bergmeister was third in the #73 Park Place Porsche 911 GT3, ahead of the Keating Mercedes that requires a huge repair job.

Pos	Num	Drivers	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	P	Mazda DPi	1'52.627
2	2	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel	P	Nissan DPi	1'52.647	0.020
3	99	Mikhail Goikhberg Stephen Simpson	P	ORECA LMP2	1'52.816	0.189
4	31	Eric Curran Felipe Nasr	P	Cadillac DPi	1'52.957	0.330
5	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	P	ORECA LMP2	1'52.968	0.341
6	5	Filipe Albuquerque Joao Barbosa	P	Cadillac DPi	1'53.121	0.494
7	7	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	P	Acura DPi	1'53.376	0.749
8	85	Simon Trummer Robert Alon	P	ORECA LMP2	1'53.778	1.151
9	52	Gustavo Yacaman Sebastian Saavedra	P	Ligier LMP2	1'53.822	1.195
10	10	Jordan Taylor Renger van der Zande	P	Cadillac DPi	1'53.865	1.238
11	6	Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron	P	Acura DPi	1'53.868	1.241
12	55	Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	P	Mazda DPi	1'54.539	1.912
13	911	Nick Tandy Patrick Pilet	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	2'04.082	11.455
14	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	2'04.274	11.647
15	66	Joey Hand Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	2'04.341	11.714
16	24	John Edwards Jesse Krohn	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	2'04.797	12.170
17	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	2'04.883	12.256
18	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	2'04.939	12.312
19	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	2'04.943	12.316
20	25	Connor de Phillippi Alexander Sims	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	2'05.621	12.994
21	44	Andy Lally John Potter	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	2'07.048	14.421
22	15	David Heinemeier Hansson Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'07.172	14.545
23	73	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'07.263	14.636
24	33	Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'07.277	14.650
25	14	Kyle Marcelli Dominik Baumann	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'07.371	14.744
26	48	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'07.532	14.905
27	58	Patrick Long Christina Nielsen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'07.570	14.943
28	63	Alessandro Pier Guidi Cooper MacNeil	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	2'07.719	15.092
29	86	Alvaro Parente Katherine Legge	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'07.766	15.139
30	93	Justin Marks Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'08.511	15.884
31	96	Markus Palttala Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	2'08.693	16.066
32	51	Francesco Piovanetti Ozz Negri	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	2'08.724	16.097
33	22	Pipo Derani Johannes van Overbeek	P	Nissan DPi	no time	–