Rolex 24: Taylor’s Acura leads Mazdas in FP2
Despite completing just two flying laps, Ricky Taylor topped second practice for the first race of the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
Taylor’s #7 Acura ARX-05 lapped the 3.56-mile course in 1min34.904sec which left him 0.215sec clear of Oliver Jarvis’ best effort in the #77 Mazda RT24-P, with Harry Tincknell third in the second Mazda a further 0.3sec in arrears.
Ryan Briscoe’s best effort in the top Cadillac DPi-V.R, the Wayne Taylor Racing entry, left him fourth ahead of the Filipe Albuquerque’s Action Express Racing Caddy, and the similar JDC-Miller MotorSports cars of Matheus Leist and Loic Duval.
Team Penske focused on practicing driver changes and scrubbing in tires, and while Taylor topped the times, the #6 sister car set no representative lap times.
Ben Hanley led LMP2 for DragonSpeed with a time 2.5sec off Taylor’s best but 0.9sec better than the best effort of David Heinemeier Hansson, second quickest in the Tower Motorsport by Starworks entry.
The two Porsche 911 RSR-19s again topped GT Le Mans thanks to Laurens Vanthoor and Nick Tandy, while the two new Corvette C8.Rs of Antonio Garcia and Tommy Milner were third and fourth.
Alessandro Pier Guidi in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 split the two Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M8s to take sixth.
Robby Foley is continuing the strong form he showed in 2019 for Turner Motorsports, his BMW M6 GT3 leading GT Daytona ahead of Zacharie Robichon in the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, Franck Perera’s #11 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan and the similar Lambo of Bryan Sellers of Paul Miller Racing.
However, both the #11 Grasser car and the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage will be held on pitlane for 5mins during the third practice session as penalty for rejoining the race track after the GTD practice period had ended.
Qualifying begins at 4.15pm local (Eastern) time.
Session results:
Rolex 24: Montoya’s Acura tops wet opening practice
Rolex 24: Jarvis takes pole for Mazda, Taylor shunts Acura
The British pair at the heart of Lexus's sportscar push
Have you heard the one about two British guys driving for a Japanese manufacturer in America’s top sportscar series? Time to sit down and talk with Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat about racing across the pond… and your accent being mistaken for Australian!
Why Peugeot couldn't afford to take a Le Mans gamble in 2022
Ahead of the much-anticipated arrival of its new 9X8 Hypercar, Peugeot revealed that it would not be entering this year's Le Mans 24 Hours with its incoming machinery. Although development restrictions for homologated cars are partially responsible, the French marque can draw on its own lessons from its history in sportscars
Why the GTP name undermines convergence between IMSA and WEC
OPINION: The adoption by IMSA of the GTP name for its forthcoming LMDh versus Le Mans Hypercar era in 2023 appeals to fans of nostalgia - but it undermines the commonality achieved by bringing its rulebook into line with the WEC. GTP or Hypercar, both sides should settle on a single name
Celebrating the weird and wonderful monsters of sportscar racing
Few disciplines of motorsport offer better possibilities to build a colossus of the track than sportscars. For Autosport's recent Monsters of Motorsport special issue, we picked out some of the finest (and not so fine) that have graced sportscar classics including Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring
How Castroneves and Meyer Shank conquered another US classic
Helio Castroneves continued his fine start to life with Meyer Shank Racing that netted the 2021 Indianapolis 500 victory by prevailing in last weekend's Daytona 24 Hours together with teammates Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Simon Pagenaud. As Cadillac fell by the wayside, the Brazilian veteran won out in an all-Acura duel to the finish
How Derani's long road to title success exorcised painful memories
It took Pipo Derani no time at all to establish himself as a winner in IMSA, winning the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours on his first two starts in 2016. But it took until the final corner of the 2021 season before he could become its champion, the culmination of a journey that he believes has made him a better driver.
The significance of the next step in WEC/IMSA convergence
Following the latest convergence connection permitting Le Mans Hypercars from the FIA World Endurance Championship to compete against LMDh entries in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from 2023, it could open up enticing options not only to manufacturers but also for the calendar and race formats
Why a Mazda IMSA Prototype title would bring bitter joy
Can Mazda win this year’s IMSA Prototype championship? Undoubtedly. But it will be the culmination of an achingly hard struggle, after which the brand has decided to quit. David Malsher-Lopez tells the story of a bizarre blend of heartache and positivity.