Laguna Seca IMSA: Mazda leads but Cadillacs are closer

Jarvis lapped the scenic 2.258-mile course in Monterey, CA, in 1min16.442sec, beating the Acura Team Penske ARX-05 of Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.153sec.

However, a similar gap behind the Acura was Filipe Albuquerque in the #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac, followed by the similar cars of Renger van der Zande (Wayne Taylor Racing), Pipo Derani (AXR), Tristan Vautier (JDC-Miller Motorsports) – all within half a second of the top time.

IMSA’s recent BoP changes have come after five races in which the Cadillacs haven’t looked a true match for the Mazdas and Acuras.

Helio Castroneves’ best effort in the second Acura left him around 0.4sec off teammate Montoya, but ahead of Colin Braun’s CORE autosport-run Nissan DPi, Simon Trummer (JDC-Miller Cadillac) and Jonathan Bomarito, who dropped a wheel off the track in the second Mazda and needed some minor repairs.

Richard Westbrook put the Ford GT on top in GT Le Mans, heading Tommy Milner’s Corvette C7.R by 0.3sec, with Jesse Krohn’s BMW M8 GTE a further tenth in arrears.

Jan Magnussen was fourth in the second Corvette ahead of Tom Blomqvist’s best in the second M8.

The big story was the two Porsche 911 RSRs, the GTLM class’s dominant cars this year, were over 1.5sec behind Westbrook’s best effort.

GT Daytona was led by Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3, but by mere hundredths ahead of Toni Vilander in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3.

Jeroen Bleekemolen wheeled the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 to third spot ahead of Bill Auberlen’s Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 and Andy Lally in the Magnus Racing Lamborghini.

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

Session results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'16.442
2	6	Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya	DPi	Acura DPi	1'16.595	0.153
3	5	Joao Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'16.746	0.304
4	10	Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'16.807	0.365
5	31	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'16.890	0.448
6	85	Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'16.908	0.466
7	7	Ricky Taylor Helio Castroneves	DPi	Acura DPi	1'17.000	0.558
8	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	DPi	Nissan DPi	1'17.222	0.780
9	84	Simon Trummer Stephen Simpson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'17.534	1.092
10	55	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'17.762	1.320
11	52	Matt McMurry Dalton Kellett	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'19.073	2.631
12	38	Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'19.266	2.824
13	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	1'22.548	6.106
14	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'22.842	6.400
15	24	Jesse Krohn John Edwards	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'22.949	6.507
16	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'23.309	6.867
17	25	Connor de Phillippi Tom Blomqvist	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'23.324	6.882
18	66	Joey Hand Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	1'23.773	7.331
19	911	Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'24.361	7.919
20	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'24.583	8.141
21	48	Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'25.248	8.806
22	63	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'25.271	8.829
23	33	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'25.721	9.279
24	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	1'25.738	9.296
25	44	John Potter Andy Lally	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'25.894	9.452
26	76	Paul Holton Matt Plumb	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'26.178	9.736
27	73	Patrick Lindsey Patrick Long	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'26.205	9.763
28	14	Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'26.308	9.866
29	12	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'26.622	10.180
30	86	Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'26.697	10.255
31	57	Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'26.833	10.391
32	9	Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'27.112	10.670
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