IMSA Road America: Acura Team Penske back on top in FP1

Cameron held top spot until the final four minutes when Taylor sprung from worst to first in class with a 1min50.654sec lap of the 4.048-mile course, to go fastest by 0.275sec.

Wayne Taylor Racing’s Renger van der Zande set a time just 0.010sec shy of Cameron to be fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, albeit just 0.033sec ahead of the Sebring-winning machine of Action Express Racing, in which Felipe Nasr set fastest time.

Jonathan Bomarito was fifth in the slightly faster of the two Mazda RT24-Ps, Joao Barbosa and Tristan Vautier completing the eight-car field in the two JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillacs.

In LMP2 Cameron Cassels had a wall-banging moment exiting Turn 5 that restricted the number of laps that Performance Tech Motorsports could turn and caused the second of two red flags. Simon Trummer, on his return to PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports led the class with a best time just 1.5sec slower than slowest DPi time, with Henrik Hedman second fastest for DragonSpeed.

The Porsche 911 RSRs appeared dominant in GT Le Mans, Frederick Makowiecki and Laurens Vanthoor just one tenth apart and one second faster than their nearest rival, Jesse Krohn in the #24 Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M8. Tommy Milner and Antonio Garcia, whose Corvettes earlier this month won the races at Sebring and Daytona respectively, were 1.2 and 1.6sec off the ultimate pace in class.

The second BMW of Connor De Phillippi caused the first red flag in the session when it ran long in Turn 5 and needed a bumpstart and reboot before heading to the pits and then the paddock.

The Turner Motorsports BMW M6 of Robby Foley and Bill Auberlen led GT Daytona by a very impressive 0.8sec, ahead of Pat Long in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

There should be noted, however, the proviso that the AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F of Aaron Telitz and Jack Hawksworth, recent winners at Daytona and Sebring, had a malfunctioning transponder and therefore didn’t officially record a lap time.

Their teammate Townsend Bell was fifth, behind Lawson Aschenbach in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 and Paul Holton’s McLaren 720S run by Compass Racing.

On Saturday, second practice will begin at 8.55am local (Central) time/9.55am Eastern, while qualifying commences at 1.50pm.

Cla	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	DPi	Acura DPi	16	1'50.654			131.697
2	Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya	DPi	Acura DPi	17	1'50.929	0.275	0.275	131.371
3	Renger van der Zande Ryan Briscoe	DPi	Cadillac DPi	21	1'50.939	0.285	0.010	131.359
4	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	19	1'50.972	0.318	0.033	131.320
5	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	DPi	Mazda DPi	18	1'51.310	0.656	0.338	130.921
6	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	DPi	Mazda DPi	19	1'51.484	0.830	0.174	130.717
7	Joao Barbosa Sébastien Bourdais	DPi	Cadillac DPi	20	1'51.638	0.984	0.154	130.536
8	Chris Miller Tristan Vautier	DPi	Cadillac DPi	23	1'51.853	1.199	0.215	130.285
9	Simon Trummer Patrick Kelly	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	24	1'53.381	2.727	1.528	128.529
10	Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	22	1'53.515	2.861	0.134	128.378
11	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	23	1'54.329	3.675	0.814	127.464
12	Cameron Cassels James French	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	17	1'54.562	3.908	0.233	127.204
13	Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	22	2'01.492	10.838	6.930	119.949
14	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	21	2'01.583	10.929	0.091	119.859
15	Jesse Krohn John Edwards	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	22	2'02.548	11.894	0.965	118.915
16	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	22	2'02.709	12.055	0.161	118.759
17	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	18	2'03.112	12.458	0.403	118.370
18	Bruno Spengler Connor de Phillippi	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	7	2'05.769	15.115	2.657	115.870
19	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	19	2'06.822	16.168	1.053	114.908
20	Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	22	2'07.642	16.988	0.820	114.169
21	Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	21	2'07.797	17.143	0.155	114.031
22	Corey Fergus Paul Holton	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	22	2'07.830	17.176	0.033	114.001
23	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	22	2'08.044	17.390	0.214	113.811
24	Mario Farnbacher Matt McMurry	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	18	2'08.437	17.783	0.393	113.463
25	Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	20	2'08.526	17.872	0.089	113.384
26	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	20	2'08.558	17.904	0.032	113.356
27	Alvaro Parente Mikhail Goikhberg	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	15	2'08.579	17.925	0.021	113.337
28	Andy Lally John Potter	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	19	2'08.800	18.146	0.221	113.143
29	Roman De Angelis Ian James	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	20	2'09.659	19.005	0.859	112.393
30	Rob Ferriol Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	20	2'09.690	19.036	0.031	112.366
31	Jack Hawksworth Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	0
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