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Practice report
IMSA Road Atlanta

Petit Le Mans IMSA: Bamber leads Cadillac 1-2-3-4-5 in FP3

Earl Bamber kept Chip Ganassi Racing on top in the last practice before qualifying for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale, the 10-hour Petit Le Mans, but the sister car suffered an alarming moment.

#02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn

With an hour of the 90min session to go it was a Cadillac 1-2-3-4, with JDC Miller MotorSports again showing well, with Tristan Vautier leading the field with a 70.003sec lap of the 2.254-mile Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, ahead of the two Ganassi entries, split by Mike Conway in the Action Express Racing entry.

Then Earl Bamber cracked the 70sec barrier in the #02 Ganassi Cadillac DPi-V.R to move to the top of the times with his 29th lap, setting the fastest times in sectors 1 and 2.

His teammate was less fortunate, however. Renger van der Zande on an out lap struck the curb a Turn 7 and the #01’s left-front wheel came off, sending the Cadillac off course.

When action resumed, Olivier Pla took over the #31 AXR car and improved its time yet remained third… but only until van der Zande took to the track once more and claimed third, 0.288sec off teammate Bamber. Then Pipo Derani improved for AXR but missed out by a couple of hundredths of displacing van der Zande.

Kamui Kobayashi in the extra AXR Caddy made it a Cadillac 1-2-3-4-5, with a time less than four-tenths slower than Bamber’s benchmark. That said, the Acura of Meyer Shank Racing was less than half a second behind the top time, and Ricky Taylor was 0.59sec down.

After Scott Huffaker shunted his PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports #52 Oreca in morning practice, the car got only four shakedown laps in the afternoon practice, but this evening the impressive Mikkel Jensen picked up like nothing happened to clock a 71.407sec on his 14th lap to move to the top of the LMP2 times by 0.125sec ahead of Louis Deletraz in the Tower Motorsports entry.

Deletraz then went top ahead of Ryan Dalziel’s Era Motorsport machine and Jensen, who had ceded his seat to Huffaker. Deletraz’s top LMP2 time was only 0.14sec off the back of the DPi times and 0.733sec behind Bamber.

Gabby Chaves was fastest in the LMP3 class in the Andretti Autosport machine by mere hundredths ahead of Felipe Fraga’s Riley Motorsports entry, Colin Braun of CORE Autosport and Nolan Siegel of Jr III.

Aaron Telitz led GTD in the pro-am Lexus RC F, setting a 1min19.632sec, around 0.18sec faster than Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 with Toni Vilander only 0.08sec further back. Seb Priaulx was fourth fastest in Inception Racing’s McLaren 720S, just ahead of Robby Foley in the Turner Motorsport BMW M4.

Jack Hawksworth looked set to top GTD Pro in the other Lexus, but a late effort by James Calado sprung the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 to the top by 0.2sec, while Tom Gamble’s Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage was third in class until the dying minutes when Maximilian Goetz went third fastest in the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3.

Petit Le Mans - FP3 results:

Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Time Gap
1 02 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United States Ryan Hunter-Reay
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'09.880  
2 5 France Tristan Vautier
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
France Loic Duval
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.003 0.123
3 01 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
France Sébastien Bourdais
New Zealand Scott Dixon
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.162 0.282
4 31 France Olivier Pla
Brazil Pipo Derani
United Kingdom Mike Conway
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.182 0.302
5 48 Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
United States Jimmie Johnson
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'10.261 0.381
6 60 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
Brazil Helio Castroneves
DPi Acura DPi 1'10.306 0.426
7 10 United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
DPi Acura DPi 1'10.470 0.590
8 8 Canada John Farano
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Portugal Rui Andrade
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'10.613 0.733
9 18 United States Dwight Merriman
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
Christian Rasmussen
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'11.352 1.472
10 52 United States Ben Keating
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
United States Scott Huffaker
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'11.407 1.527
11 81 Sweden Henrik Hedman
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
Colombia Sebastian Montoya
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'11.663 1.783
12 11 United States Steven Thomas
United States Josh Pierson
United States Tristan Nunez
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'11.902 2.022
13 20 Denmark Dennis Andersen
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'12.308 2.428
14 36 United States Jarett Andretti
Colombia Gabby Chaves
Josh Burdon
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'16.028 6.148
15 74 United States Gar Robinson
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Netherlands Kay van Berlo
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'16.064 6.184
16 54 United States Jon Bennett
United States Colin Braun
United States George Kurtz
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'16.137 6.257
17 30 United States Ari Balogh
Canada Garett Grist
Nolan Siegel
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'16.138 6.258
18 33 Portugal Joao Barbosa
Malthe Jakobsen
Nicolas Pino
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'16.643 6.763
19 13 Canada Orey Fidani
United Kingdom Matthew Bell
Germany Lars Kern
LMP3 Duqueine D08 1'17.333 7.453
20 38 Daniel Goldburg
Australia Cameron Shields
Tyler Maxson
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'17.625 7.745
21 76 Canada Anthony Mantella
Canada Kyle Marcelli
Josh Sarchet
LMP3 Duqueine D08 1'17.909 8.029
22 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Aaron Telitz
United States Richard Heistand
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'19.632 9.752
23 62 Brazil Daniel Serra
Italy Davide Rigon
United Kingdom James Calado
GTD PRO Ferrari 488 GT3 1'19.649 9.769
24 1 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
Sweden Erik Johansson
GTD BMW M4 GT3 1'19.815 9.935
25 14 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
United States Kyle Kirkwood
GTD PRO Lexus RC F GT3 1'19.867 9.987
26 21 France Simon Mann
Argentina Luis Perez Companc
Finland Toni Vilander
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 1'19.895 10.015
27 79 Germany Maximilian Buhk
Canada Mikael Grenier
Maximillian Goetz
GTD PRO Mercedes AMG GT3 1'19.926 10.046
28 23 United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Spain Alex Riberas
United Kingdom Tom Gamble
GTD PRO Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'19.943 10.063
29 70 United States Brendan Iribe
South Africa Jordan Lee Pepper
United Kingdom Sebastian Priaulx
GTD McLaren 720S GT3 1'19.963 10.083
30 96 United States Robby Foley
United States Bill Auberlen
Michael Dinan
GTD BMW M4 GT3 1'20.000 10.120
31 66 Kyffin Simpson
United States Till Bechtolsheimer
Germany Mario Farnbacher
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'20.030 10.150
32 3 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
GTD PRO Corvette C8.R GTD 1'20.040 10.160
33 57 United States Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis
Germany Marvin Dienst
GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 1'20.052 10.172
34 9 Australia Matt Campbell
France Mathieu Jaminet
Brazil Felipe Nasr
GTD PRO Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'20.085 10.205
35 27 Canada Roman De Angelis
Belgium Maxime Martin
United Kingdom Ian James
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'20.085 10.205
36 25 United States Connor de Phillippi
United States John Edwards
Finland Jesse Krohn
GTD PRO BMW M4 GT3 1'20.180 10.300
37 39 United States Robert Megennis
United States Corey Lewis
United States Jeff Westphal
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'20.272 10.392
38 42 United States Jaden Conwright
Marco Holzer
United States Don Yount
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'20.305 10.425
39 16 United States Ryan Hardwick
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Belgium Jan Heylen
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'20.417 10.537
40 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Ulysse De
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 1'20.520 10.640
41 44 United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
United States Spencer Pumpelly
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'21.032 11.152
42 32 United States Mike Skeen
United Kingdom Stevan McAleer
Germany Dirk Muller
GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 1'21.276 11.396
43 99 United States Rob Ferriol
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
United States Nicholas Boulle
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'21.883 12.003

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