IMSA Sebring: WTR’s van der Zande leads opening practice

Van der Zande worked the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R down to a best effort of 1min51.152sec to shade by 0.216sec Stephen Simpson who is making his return to action for JDC-Miller Motorsports in place of Chris Miller.

The #85 Caddy, which Simpson will share with fulltimer Tristan Vautier, was some 1.2sec clear of Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani, who missed out on the best track conditions at the end of the session.

That was because almost simultaneous ‘offs’ occurred for Joao Barbosa in the Mustang Sampling #5 JDC-Miller machine, and the GT Daytona cars of Rob Ferriol (Audi R8) and Bill Auberlen (BMW M6), which brought out the red flags and then the checker.

Fastest of the turbocharged Prototypes was Ricky Taylor in Acura #7, 0.4sec ahead of Dane Cameron’s sister car, while Gustavo Menezes in the DragonSpeed LMP2 Oreca eclipsed the best efforts of both P1 Mazda RT24-Ps.

In GTLM, Laurens Vanthoor’s #912 Porsche 911 RSR-19 beat Jordan Taylor and Oliver Gavin in the Corvette C8.Rs by 0.8 and 1.5sec, but again the picture is blurred by the ever evolving track conditions and the early termination of the session.

Nick Tandy was next up ahead of John Edwards in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M8 GTE.

Paul Holton in the Compass Racing McLaren 720S was fastest in the GTD class as it was in qualifying at Daytona two weeks ago, with Jack Hawksworth’s Lexus RC F and Andy Lally’s Magnus Racing Lamborghini next up.

Practice results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	10	Renger van der Zande Ryan Briscoe	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'51.152
2	85	Stephen Simpson Tristan Vautier	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'51.368	0.216
3	31	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'52.596	1.444
4	7	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	DPi	Acura DPi	1'53.612	2.460
5	6	Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya	DPi	Acura DPi	1'53.961	2.809
6	5	Joao Barbosa Sébastien Bourdais	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'55.564	4.412
7	81	Henrik Hedman Gustavo Menezes	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'55.897	4.745
8	55	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'55.926	4.774
9	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'56.757	5.605
10	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'59.501	8.349
11	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	2'00.255	9.103
12	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	2'01.013	9.861
13	911	Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	2'01.298	10.146
14	24	Jesse Krohn John Edwards	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	2'05.145	13.993
15	76	Corey Fergus Paul Holton	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	2'06.012	14.860
16	14	Jack Hawksworth Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'06.457	15.305
17	44	Andy Lally John Potter	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'07.001	15.849
18	74	Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'08.322	17.170
19	8	John Farano Ryan Dalziel	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	2'08.981	17.829
20	52	Patrick Kelly Spencer Pigot	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	2'09.909	18.757
21	12	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'11.849	20.697
22	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	2'12.038	20.886
23	18	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	2'12.170	21.018
24	63	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	2'13.343	22.191
25	22	Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'14.466	23.314
26	25	Bruno Spengler Connor de Phillippi	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	2'14.966	23.814
27	30	Rob Ferriol Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	2'15.799	24.647
28	16	Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'16.946	25.794
29	38	Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	0.000
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