IMSA Long Beach: Taylor leads Acura 1-2 opening practice

Towards the end of the shortened 55-minute session around the fabled city street track located south of Los Angeles, Taylor produced a laptime of 1m11.942s in the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06, eight tenths of a second clear of the sister Meyer Shank Racing car of Tom Blomqvist.

Matt Campbell set the early pace in the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, setting a trio of fastest times as he worked down to 1m14.241s, and was on a faster lap when he pitted. Filipe Albuquerque had been P2 in the WTR Acura with 1m14.555s, but then leapfrogged Campbell to the head of the times with 1m13.024s, over a second clear of the pack.

Taylor then took over from Albuquerque to unleash a 1m11.942s at the end of the session, well ahead of Blomqvist’s 1m12.800s.

Mathieu Jaminet was best of the rest in the #6 Porsche on 1m13.550s, 1.6s off the pace but a tenth clear of Campbell’s 1m13.660s.

Augusto Farfus was fastest of the BMW M Hybrid V8s, with Pipo Derani (Action Express) the quickest Cadillac V-Series.R driver. The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Caddy and #25 BMW didn’t set representative times and were over 3s off the pace.

Aston Martin sets GTD pace

With no LMP2 or P3 cars in action, GTD is the sole secondary class at Long Beach. Alex Riberas set the fastest time in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin at 1m19.303s, 0.071s clear of Jack Hawksworth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F.

Alec Udell was third quickest in the Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3-R – the fastest of the non-GTD Pro entries – on 1m19.996s, ahead of the Corvette of Antonio Garcia.

The second session takes place at 12:45 local time, ahead of qualifying at 17:10.

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	GTP	Acura ARX-06	1'11.942
2	60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun	GTP	Acura ARX-06	1'12.800	0.858
3	6	Nick Tandy Mathieu Jaminet	GTP	Porsche 963	1'13.550	1.608
4	7	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr	GTP	Porsche 963	1'13.660	1.718
5	24	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	1'13.667	1.725
6	31	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	1'13.788	1.846
7	1	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	1'15.150	3.208
8	25	Connor de Phillippi Nick Yelloly	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	1'15.884	3.942
9	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'19.303	7.361
10	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	1'19.374	7.432
11	92	Alec Udell Jeroen Bleekemolen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'19.488	7.546
12	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'19.660	7.718
13	78	Mikhail Goikhberg Loris Spinelli	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	1'19.689	7.747
14	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'19.697	7.755
15	77	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'19.748	7.806
16	93	Ashton Harrison Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'19.754	7.812
17	80	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'19.807	7.865
18	9	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'19.865	7.923
19	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'19.897	7.955
20	27	Roman De Angelis Marco Sorensen	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'19.972	8.030
21	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'19.979	8.037
22	79	Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon	GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'19.984	8.042
23	32	Mike Skeen Mikael Grenier	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'20.028	8.086
24	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	1'20.055	8.113
25	97	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'20.077	8.135
26	66	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'20.181	8.239
27	91	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'20.220	8.278
28	96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'20.354	8.412
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