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Australia

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

#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 Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Ricky Taylor
United States Alexander Rossi
DPi Acura DPi 1'10.086
2 77 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Tristan Nunez
France Olivier Pla
DPi Mazda DPi 1'10.154 0.068
3 55 United States Jonathan Bomarito
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
United States Ryan Hunter-Reay
DPi Mazda DPi 1'10.243 0.157
4 31 Brazil Felipe Nasr
Brazil Pipo Derani
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.326 0.240
5 5 France Sébastien Bourdais
France Tristan Vautier
France Loic Duval
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.398 0.312
6 85 United States Chris Miller
Brazil Matheus Leist
France Gabriel Aubry
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.505 0.419
7 6 Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
United States Dane Cameron
France Simon Pagenaud
DPi Acura DPi 1'10.529 0.443
8 10 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Australia Ryan Briscoe
New Zealand Scott Dixon
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.872 0.786
9 8 Canada John Farano
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'11.078 0.992
10 52 United States Patrick Kelly
Switzerland Simon Trummer
United States Scott Huffaker
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'11.553 1.467
11 38 James McGuire
United Kingdom Matthew Bell
United States Colin Braun
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'11.569 1.483
12 51 United States Austin McCusker
Poland Jakub Smiechowski
United States Rob Hodes
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'14.364 4.278
13 912 New Zealand Earl Bamber
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
France Mathieu Jaminet
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'17.008 6.922
14 911 United Kingdom Nick Tandy
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Australia Matt Campbell
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'17.494 7.408
15 25 Canada Bruno Spengler
United States Connor de Phillippi
United States Colton Herta
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'17.607 7.521
16 3 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'17.755 7.669
17 24 Finland Jesse Krohn
United States John Edwards
Brazil Augusto Farfus
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'17.871 7.785
18 4 United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Tommy Milner
Switzerland Marcel Fassler
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'18.698 8.612
19 48 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
United States Corey Lewis
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'19.946 9.860
20 44 United States Andy Lally
United States John Potter
United States Spencer Pumpelly
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'20.119 10.033
21 23 United Kingdom Ian James
Canada Roman De Angelis
United Kingdom Darren Turner
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'20.415 10.329
22 14 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United States Aaron Telitz
United States Michael de Quesada
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'20.461 10.375
23 16 United States Ryan Hardwick
United States Patrick Long
Belgium Jan Heylen
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'20.484 10.398
24 96 United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
United States Dillon Machavern
GTD BMW M6 GT3 1'20.501 10.415
25 86 Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Matt McMurry
Japan Shinya Michimi
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'20.601 10.515
26 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Townsend Bell
United States Kyle Kirkwood
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'20.636 10.550
27 57 Portugal Alvaro Parente
Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
United States Trent Hindman
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'20.759 10.673
28 74 United States Gar Robinson
United States Lawson Aschenbach
United States Ben Keating
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'20.811 10.725
29 63 United States Cooper MacNeil
Italy Alessandro Balzan
United States Jeff Westphal
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 1'20.871 10.785
30 9 Norway Dennis Olsen
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Germany Lars Kern
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'21.090 11.004
31 30 United States Rob Ferriol
Germany Markus Winkelhock
United States Andrew Davis
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 1'21.108 11.022

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