Practice report
IMSA Road Atlanta
Petit Le Mans: AXR Cadillac leads opening practice
Reigning IMSA Prototype champion Felipe Nasr set a strong pace in the first practice session for this weekend’s 2019 WeatherTech Sports Car Championship finale at Road Atlanta, while Ford led the way in GT Le Mans, and the Turner Motorsport BMW topped GTD.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Oct 11, 2019, 1:11 AM
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Nasr’s Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R lapped the 2.54-mile course in just 69.093sec to eclipse the two Acura Team Penske ARX-05s of Ricky Taylor and Dane Cameron by 0.642 and 0.880sec respectively.
Colin Braun, on CORE autosport’s final run in Prototypes clocked fourth fastest in the Nissan DPi, and Matthieu Vaxiviere sent the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac around fast enough to beat the two Mazda RT24-Ps.
Richard Westbrook led GT Le Mans in the #67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT ahead of the squad’s final race running the sexy four-year-old machines, but being less than two tenths slower wasn’t enough to bag second for teammate Dirk Muller. Risi Competizione roared back to the series – for the first time since January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona – in fine form, and James Calado bagged second spot for the Texas-based squad.
Nick Tandy (Porsche), John Edwards (BMW) and Antonio Garcia (Corvette) were all within three-tenths of top spot.
The session was red-flagged twice for GT Daytona cars – once when Jack Hawksworth picked up a puncture just after passing pitlane entrance, and elected to stop his AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC F on track rather than complete a whole lap with a flailing tire carcass. The second red came late on when Marco Seefried struck a tire wall in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan.
Both those two cars ended up in the top three times – PMR’s best being set by Bryan Sellers – but it was Bill Auberlen who clinched top spot in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6.
Christopher Mies’ Land Motorsport Audi R8 was fourth ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen’s best effort in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 and Toni Vilander in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari.
Second practice begins at 2.50pm local (Eastern) time.
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Session results:
Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Time Gap 1 31 Felipe Nasr
Eric Curran
Pipo Derani DPi Cadillac DPi 1'09.093 2 7
Ricky Taylor
Helio Castroneves
Graham Rahal DPi Acura DPi 1'09.735 0.642 3 6
Dane Cameron
Juan Pablo Montoya
Simon Pagenaud DPi Acura DPi 1'09.973 0.880 4 54
Jon Bennett
Colin Braun
Romain Dumas DPi Nissan DPi 1'10.022 0.929 5 10
Renger van der Zande
Jordan Taylor
Matthieu Vaxiviere DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.147 1.054 6 77
Oliver Jarvis
Tristan Nunez
Timo Bernhard DPi Mazda DPi 1'10.169 1.076 7 55
Jonathan Bomarito
Harry Tincknell
Olivier Pla DPi Mazda DPi 1'10.356 1.263 8 85
Mikhail Goikhberg
Tristan Vautier
Juan Piedrahita DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.774 1.681 9 84
Simon Trummer
Stephen Simpson
Chris Miller DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.928 1.835 10 50
Will Owen
Rene Binder
Spencer Pigot DPi Cadillac DPi 1'11.200 2.107 11 52
Matt McMurry
Gabriel Aubry
Dalton Kellett LMP2 ORECA LMP2 1'11.233 2.140 12 38
Cameron Cassels
Kyle Masson
Andrew Evans LMP2 ORECA LMP2 1'11.381 2.288 13 67 Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook
Scott Dixon GTLM Ford GT 1'16.810 7.717 14 62
James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi
Daniel Serra GTLM Ferrari 488 GTE 1'16.902 7.809 15 66
Joey Hand
Dirk Muller
Sébastien Bourdais GTLM Ford GT 1'16.982 7.889 16 911
Patrick Pilet
Nick Tandy
Frédéric Makowiecki GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 1'16.992 7.899 17 24
Jesse Krohn
John Edwards
Philipp Eng GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'17.031 7.938 18 3
Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia
Mike Rockenfeller GTLM Corvette C7.R 1'17.080 7.987 19 25
Tom Blomqvist
Connor de Phillippi
Colton Herta GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'17.205 8.112 20 4
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner
Marcel Fassler GTLM Corvette C7.R 1'17.361 8.268 21 912
Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor
Mathieu Jaminet GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 1'17.516 8.423 22 96
Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley
Dillon Machavern GTD BMW M6 GT3 1'19.306 10.213 23 14
Richard Heistand
Jack Hawksworth
Parker Chase GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'19.596 10.503 24 48
Bryan Sellers
Corey Lewis
Marco Seefried GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'19.670 10.577 25 29
Christopher Mies
Richard Feller
Daniel Morad GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 1'19.727 10.634 26 33
Ben Keating
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Felipe Fraga GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'19.764 10.671 27 63
Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander
Jeff Westphal GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 1'19.776 10.683 28 44 John Potter
Andy Lally
Spencer Pumpelly GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'20.023 10.930 29 86
Mario Farnbacher
Trent Hindman
Justin Marks GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'20.070 10.977 30 47
Brandon Gdovic
Don Yount
Shinya Michimi GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'20.198 11.105 31 12
Frankie Montecalvo
Townsend Bell
Aaron Telitz GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'20.487 11.394 32 9
Scott Hargrove
Zacharie Robichon
Lars Kern GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'20.696 11.603 33 57
Katherine Legge
Ana Beatriz
Christina Nielsen GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'21.412 12.319 34 5
Joao Barbosa
Mike Conway
Filipe Albuquerque DPi Cadillac DPi 1'22.468 13.375 View full results
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