Laguna Seca IMSA: WTR leads first practice, Fords dominate GTLM

Around the glorious undulating 2.238-mile course on the Monterey peninsula, the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R was a remarkable 0.65sec clear of Dane Cameron’s best effort in the Acura Team Penske ARX-05, with Pipo Derani and Ryan Dalziel third and fourth for ESM Nissan, albeit more than one second off the pace.

Helio Castroneves was fifth in the second Acura, 0.3sec faster than Filipe Albuqerque’s effort in the quicker of the two Action Express Racing Cadillacs.

CORE autosport’s Colin Braun set the best time in an LMP2 car, his Oreca 0.1sec faster than Robert Alon in the similar car run by JDC-Miller Oreca.

The Mazda RT24-P of Jonathan Bomarito/Harry Tincknell failed to set a time, getting pushed behind the wall very early in the session, while its sister car, piloted by Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez, was 2.5sec off the ultimate pace.

The two Ford GTs of Richard Westbrook and Joey set the pace in GT Le Mans, 0.23sec apart, and well over half a second further clear of their nearest rival, the Porsche 911 of Earl Bamber.

Jan Magnussen’s Corvette C7.R was a mere half a tenth clear of the second Porsche of Nick Tandy, with Oliver Gavin’s ’Vette sixth ahead of the two BMW M8s.

Bryan Sellers was a mere half a second slower than the BMWs, driving the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini to the top of the GT Daytona times, ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen (Riley Mercedes AMG GT) and Andy Lally’s Magnus Racing Audi R8.

Second practice begins at 3.15pm local (Pacific) time.

Laguna Seca, IMSA first practice

Pos.	#	Drivers	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	10	Jordan Taylor Renger van der Zande	P	Cadillac DPi	1'16.882
2	6	Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron	P	Acura DPi	1'17.533	0.651
3	22	Pipo Derani Johannes van Overbeek	P	Nissan DPi	1'17.975	1.093
4	2	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel	P	Nissan DPi	1'18.132	1.250
5	7	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	P	Acura DPi	1'18.149	1.267
6	5	Filipe Albuquerque Joao Barbosa	P	Cadillac DPi	1'18.457	1.575
7	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	P	ORECA LMP2	1'18.569	1.687
8	85	Simon Trummer Robert Alon	P	ORECA LMP2	1'18.661	1.779
9	31	Eric Curran Felipe Nasr	P	Cadillac DPi	1'18.877	1.995
10	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	P	Mazda DPi	1'19.406	2.524
11	99	Mikhail Goikhberg Stephen Simpson	P	ORECA LMP2	1'19.789	2.907
12	52	Gustavo Yacaman Sebastian Saavedra	P	ORECA LMP2	1'20.329	3.447
13	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	1'23.644	6.762
14	66	Joey Hand Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	1'23.863	6.981
15	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'24.419	7.537
16	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'24.436	7.554
17	911	Nick Tandy Patrick Pilet	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'24.484	7.602
18	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'24.596	7.714
19	25	Connor de Phillippi Alexander Sims	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'24.650	7.768
20	24	John Edwards Jesse Krohn	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'24.954	8.072
21	48	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'25.403	8.521
22	33	Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'25.598	8.716
23	44	Andy Lally John Potter	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1'25.870	8.988
24	51	Francesco Piovanetti Ozz Negri	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'26.172	9.290
25	58	Patrick Long Christina Nielsen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'26.176	9.294
26	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	1'26.240	9.358
27	63	Cooper MacNeil Gunnar Jeannette	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'26.250	9.368
28	14	Kyle Marcelli Dominik Baumann	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'26.275	9.393
29	73	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'26.414	9.532
30	86	Alvaro Parente Katherine Legge	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'26.780	9.898
31	15	David Heinemeier Hansson Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'26.984	10.102
32	64	Townsend Bell Frankie Montecalvo	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'27.026	10.144
33	93	Justin Marks Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'27.348	10.466
34	55	Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	P	Mazda DPi	no time	-