Rolex 24: AXR's Kobayashi tops rain-hit second practice

The Japanese star who has amassed two wins and a runner-up finish in his three outings in the season opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round, turned a 1min35.470sec in Action Express Racing’s Ally Cadillac DPi-V.R, which will only be competing at the four Michelin Endurance Cup races this year.

It’s full-time sister car, the #31 Whelen Engineering AXR car was second in the hands of Mike Conway, ahead of Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura.

Marcus Ericsson flirted with the limits of his #02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac but kept it off the wall to go fourth fastest.

Nico Muller was again fast in the High Class Racing Oreca, topping the LMP2 class ahead of Ed Jones’ G-Drive with APR entry and Devlin DeFrancesco in the DragonSpeed car he is sharing with Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward and Eric Lux.

Felipe Fraga led LMP3 for Riley Motorsports, leading a Ligier 1-2-3, with Garett Grist of Performance Tech Motorsports barely a tenth slower and Joao Barbosa third for Sean Creech Motorsport.

Trenton Estep had a shunt on the Forty7 Motorsport car’s sixth lap that prevented him from rejoining the session.

Jack Hawksworth headed up GTD Pro for Vasser Sullivan Racing, his Lexus RC F completing just three laps before the track conditions deteriorated. Daniel Juncadella and Dirk Muller slotted the Proton Mercedes-AMG GT3s into second and third, ahead of the two Corvette C8.Rs which were split by Sheldon van der Linde in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M4.

Winward Racing led GTD, Mikael Grenier proving the fastest of the bunch ahead of Maxi Goetz (Alegra Motorsports Benz) and Patrick Gallagher in the Crucial Motorsports McLaren 720S.

Third practice begins at 7.15pm local (Eastern) time and will last until 9.00pm.

Practice results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	48	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson Jose Maria Lopez	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'35.470
2	31	Pipo Derani Tristan Nunez Mike Conway	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'36.964	1.494
3	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer Nico Mueller	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'37.012	1.542
4	68	François Heriau Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones René Rast	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'37.137	1.667
5	81	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Patricio O'Ward Colton Herta	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'37.554	2.084
6	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Murry Dylan Rinus van Kalmthout	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'37.632	2.162
7	22	Jim McGuire Guy Smith Philip Hanson Will Owen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'38.378	2.908
8	69	John Falb James Allen Luca Ghiotto Tijmen van	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'38.952	3.482
9	8	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Pinto Ferdinand Habsburg	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'39.956	4.486
10	11	Thomas Steven Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'41.185	5.715
11	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo Michael Cooper	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'43.203	7.733
12	38	Dan Goldburg Hikaru Abe Garett Grist Nicolas Pino	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'43.347	7.877
13	33	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Seb Priaulx Lance Willsey	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'44.248	8.778
14	13	Orey Fidani Kuno Wittmer Lars Kern Matthew Bell	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'44.744	9.274
15	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz Nic Jönsson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'45.407	9.937
16	6	Efrin Castro Moritz Kranz Ori Ayrton Joel Miller	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'46.091	10.621
17	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Mikael Grenier Lucas Auer	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'46.577	11.107
18	28	Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad Linus Lundqvist Maximillian Goetz	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'46.835	11.365
19	59	Lance Bergstein Jon Miller Patrick Gallagher Paul Holton	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'46.843	11.373
20	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'47.010	11.540
21	98	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Charles Eastwood Nicki Thiim	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'47.189	11.719
22	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'47.264	11.794
23	21	Mann Simon Luis Perez Companc Nicklas Nielsen Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'47.384	11.914
24	39	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Sandy Mitchell Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'47.600	12.130
25	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Jonathan Adam	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'47.916	12.446
26	64	Ted Giovanis Hugh Plumb Matt Plumb Owen Trinkler	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'47.975	12.505
27	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan Jens Klingmann	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'48.080	12.610
28	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco Alessio Rovera	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'48.110	12.640
29	71	Franck Perera LLarena Mateo Paul Maximilian Mikhail Goikhberg	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'48.455	12.985
30	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	1'48.725	13.255
31	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson Nicholas Boulle	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'48.828	13.358
32	10	Ricky Taylor Joao Barbosa Alexander Rossi Will Stevens	DPi	Acura DPi	1'48.852	13.382
33	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Marcus Ericsson Kevin Magnussen	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'49.000	13.530
34	7	Mark Kvamme Austin McCusker Trenton Estep Antoine Doquin	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'49.180	13.710
35	27	Roman De Angelis Ian James Darren Turner Tom Gamble	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'49.211	13.741
36	97	Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella Maro Engel Jules Gounon	GTD PRO	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'49.639	14.169
37	15	Dirk Muller Patrick Assenheimer Austin Cindric	GTD PRO	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'49.680	14.210
38	42	Don Yount Benja Hites Jaden Conwright Markus Palttala	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'50.246	14.776
39	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'50.381	14.911
40	19	Bill Sweedler John Megrue Giacomo Altoè Jeff Segal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'50.521	15.051
41	18	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel Paul-Loup Chatin	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'51.190	15.720
42	24	Philipp Eng Marco Wittmann Nick Yelloly Sheldon Van Der Linde	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	1'51.357	15.887
43	4	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Marco Sorensen	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'51.464	15.994
44	32	Mike Skeen Guy Cosmo Stevan McAleer Scott Andrews	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'53.715	18.245
45	62	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	GTD PRO	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'53.829	18.359
46	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval Ben Keating	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'54.631	19.161
47	66	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'55.702	20.232
48	26	Nolan Siegel Cameron Shields Charles Crews Ugo De	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'58.318	22.848
49	75	Kenny Habul Luca Stolz Raffaele Marciello Fabian Schiller	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'58.544	23.074
50	2	Laurens Vanthoor Patrick Pilet Dennis Olsen Alexandre Imperatori	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'17.295	41.825
51	63	Marco Mapelli Andrea Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti Rolf Ineichen	GTD PRO	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'22.014	46.544
52	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon Alex Palou	DPi	Cadillac DPi	0.000
53	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	0.000
54	16	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen Richard Lietz	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	0.000
55	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas Maxime Martin	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	0.000
56	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus Jesse Krohn	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	0.000
57	34	Kyle Washington James Sofronas Jeroen Bleekemolen Klaus Bachler	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	0.000
58	36	Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Rasmus Lindh Gabby Chaves	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	0.000
59	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker Nicolas Lapierre	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	0.000
60	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves Simon Pagenaud	DPi	Acura DPi	0.000
61	79	Cooper MacNeil Julien Andlauer Matteo Cairoli Alessio Picariello	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	0.000
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