IMSA Mid-Ohio: Montoya puts Acura on top in first practice

Acura Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya’s was fastest in opening practice for this weekend's Mid-Ohio IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round, almost a quarter of a second up on the Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani.

#6 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, DPi: Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron

The #6 Acura ARX-05 of reigning IMSA champions Montoya and Dane Cameron lapped the 2.358-mile road course in 1min13.057sec to beat the #31 Cadillac by 0.236sec, while Ricky Taylor was just 0.009sec further back in the second Acura.

A late improvement from Harry Tincknell saw him beat Mazda teammate Oliver Jarvis by 0.02sec to land P4, albeit over half a second off the lead Acura.

Meanwhile the two JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillacs sandwiched the similar car of championship leader Renger van der Zande in the Wayne Taylor Racing entry.

In GT Le Mans, which comprises just four cars following Porsche’s withdrawal, Antonio Garcia was 0.3sec faster than Corvette Racing teammate Tommy Milner. The two BMW M8s were 0.84 and 1.28sec were off the pace.

In fact, Bruno Spengler’s M8 was less than 1sec faster than the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 of Bill Auberlen which topped GT Daytona.

Behind Auberlen by a mere 0.056sec was Jack Hawksworth in the faster of the two AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC Fs, with Alvaro Parente third in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ahead of Pat Long’s Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R and Lawson Aschenbach in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3.

The #30 Audi R8 of Hardpoint Racing, driven by Rob Ferriol and Spencer Pumpelly, did not take part in the session due to a technical problem.

Tomorrow’s practice session begins at 10.55am local (Eastern) time, with qualifying not being held until Sunday (raceday) morning.

Session results:

Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Time Gap
1 6 Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
United States Dane Cameron
DPi Acura DPi 1'13.057  
2 31 Brazil Felipe Nasr
Brazil Pipo Derani
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'13.293 0.236
3 7 Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Ricky Taylor
DPi Acura DPi 1'13.302 0.245
4 55 United States Jonathan Bomarito
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
DPi Mazda DPi 1'13.598 0.541
5 77 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Tristan Nunez
DPi Mazda DPi 1'13.618 0.561
6 5 Portugal Joao Barbosa
France Sébastien Bourdais
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'13.739 0.682
7 10 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Australia Ryan Briscoe
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'13.950 0.893
8 85 France Tristan Vautier
France Gabriel Aubry
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'14.561 1.504
9 3 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'19.690 6.633
10 4 United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Tommy Milner
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'19.991 6.934
11 24 Finland Jesse Krohn
United States John Edwards
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'20.527 7.470
12 25 Canada Bruno Spengler
United States Connor de Phillippi
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'20.966 7.909
13 96 United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
GTD BMW M6 GT3 1'21.861 8.804
14 14 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United States Aaron Telitz
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'21.917 8.860
15 57 Portugal Alvaro Parente
Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'21.993 8.936
16 16 United States Ryan Hardwick
United States Patrick Long
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'22.224 9.167
17 74 United States Gar Robinson
United States Lawson Aschenbach
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'22.226 9.169
18 86 Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Matt McMurry
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'22.271 9.214
19 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Townsend Bell
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'22.278 9.221
20 76 United States Corey Fergus
United States Paul Holton
GTD McLaren 720S GT3 1'22.315 9.258
21 44 United States Andy Lally
United States John Potter
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'22.325 9.268
22 23 United Kingdom Ian James
Canada Roman De Angelis
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'23.038 9.981
23 22 United States Till Bechtolsheimer
United States Marc Miller
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'23.284 10.227
24 30 United States Rob Ferriol
United States Spencer Pumpelly
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 0.000  
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