Petit Le Mans: Taylor leads opening practice for Acura
Ricky Taylor sent Acura Team Penske to the top of the times in opening practice for Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
#7 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, DPi: Helio Castroneves, Ricky Taylor, Alexander Rossi
Bob Meyer
Taylor, who along with co-driver Helio Castroneves has won the last three Prototype rounds in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, used the #7 Acura ARX-05 to lap the fabulous 2.54-mile road course in 70.086sec.
However, the majority of the session saw the car in the hands of third driver for the 10-hour race, Alexander Rossi, who hasn’t driven the Acura since January’s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and who has no previous experience of Road Atlanta.
Taylor’s best effort was just 0.068sec faster than Oliver Jarvis’ in the #77 Mazda RT24-P and 0.15sec ahead of the second Mazda of Jonathan Bomarito.
Swiftest of the Cadillac DPi-V.R drivers was Felipe Nasr in the Action Express Racing entry, just under quarter-second from top spot, with Sebastien Bourdais’ JDC-Miller machine fifth, a tenth quicker than Gabriel Aubry in the sister car.
Tower Motorsport by Starworks led LMP2 thanks to Mikkel Jensen, almost half a second faster than Scott Huffaker in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport car.
Laurens Vanthoor and Nick Tandy formed a Porsche 911 RSR 1-2 in GT Le Mans but getting seat time for the third drivers for the squad – Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell naturally became priority.
Connor De Phillippi was third for BMW, 0.1 ahead of Antonio Garcia’s Corvette C8.R.
In GT Daytona, Bryan Sellers’ Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan led from Andy Lally’s similar Magnus Racing machine, with Darren Turner an impressive third in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.
Second practice begins at 3.45pm local (Eastern) time.
Session results:
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 |
Helio Castroneves
Ricky Taylor Alexander Rossi |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'10.086 | |
2 | 77 |
Oliver Jarvis
Tristan Nunez Olivier Pla |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'10.154 | 0.068 |
3 | 55 |
Jonathan Bomarito
Harry Tincknell Ryan Hunter-Reay |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'10.243 | 0.157 |
4 | 31 |
Felipe Nasr
Pipo Derani Filipe Albuquerque |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.326 | 0.240 |
5 | 5 |
Sébastien Bourdais
Tristan Vautier Loic Duval |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.398 | 0.312 |
6 | 85 |
Chris Miller
Matheus Leist Gabriel Aubry |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.505 | 0.419 |
7 | 6 |
Juan Pablo Montoya
Dane Cameron Simon Pagenaud |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'10.529 | 0.443 |
8 | 10 |
Renger van der Zande
Ryan Briscoe Scott Dixon |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.872 | 0.786 |
9 | 8 |
John Farano
Mikkel Jensen Job Van Uitert |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'11.078 | 0.992 |
10 | 52 |
Patrick Kelly
Simon Trummer Scott Huffaker |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'11.553 | 1.467 |
11 | 38 |
James McGuire
Matthew Bell Colin Braun |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'11.569 | 1.483 |
12 | 51 |
Austin McCusker
Jakub Smiechowski Rob Hodes |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'14.364 | 4.278 |
13 | 912 |
Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor Mathieu Jaminet |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'17.008 | 6.922 |
14 | 911 |
Nick Tandy
Frédéric Makowiecki Matt Campbell |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'17.494 | 7.408 |
15 | 25 |
Bruno Spengler
Connor de Phillippi Colton Herta |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'17.607 | 7.521 |
16 | 3 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'17.755 | 7.669 |
17 | 24 |
Jesse Krohn
John Edwards Augusto Farfus |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'17.871 | 7.785 |
18 | 4 |
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'18.698 | 8.612 |
19 | 48 |
Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow Corey Lewis |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'19.946 | 9.860 |
20 | 44 |
Andy Lally
John Potter Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'20.119 | 10.033 |
21 | 23 |
Ian James
Roman De Angelis Darren Turner |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'20.415 | 10.329 |
22 | 14 |
Jack Hawksworth
Aaron Telitz Michael de Quesada |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'20.461 | 10.375 |
23 | 16 |
Ryan Hardwick
Patrick Long Jan Heylen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'20.484 | 10.398 |
24 | 96 |
Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley Dillon Machavern |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'20.501 | 10.415 |
25 | 86 |
Mario Farnbacher
Matt McMurry Shinya Michimi |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'20.601 | 10.515 |
26 | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo
Townsend Bell Kyle Kirkwood |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'20.636 | 10.550 |
27 | 57 |
Alvaro Parente
Mikhail Goikhberg Trent Hindman |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'20.759 | 10.673 |
28 | 74 |
Gar Robinson
Lawson Aschenbach Ben Keating |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'20.811 | 10.725 |
29 | 63 |
Cooper MacNeil
Alessandro Balzan Jeff Westphal |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'20.871 | 10.785 |
30 | 9 |
Dennis Olsen
Zacharie Robichon Lars Kern |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'21.090 | 11.004 |
31 | 30 |
Rob Ferriol
Markus Winkelhock Andrew Davis |
GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'21.108 | 11.022 |
View full results |
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