Sebring 12 Hours: Taylor’s Acura on top in night practice
Ricky Taylor put the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 at the top of the times in the third practice session for this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship-concluding Sebring 12 Hours.
Taylor lapped the 3.74-mile airport course in 1min48.358sec, to go 0.177sec faster than Pipo Derani’s Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. This was despite Taylor’s teammate Helio Castroneves requiring a new nose on the car after a minor brush with a tire wall.
Mazda’s enduro ‘third man’ Olivier Pla turned the #77 Mazda RT24-P’s fastest time, just 0.082sec behind Derani and 0.223sec ahead of Ryan Briscoe in the Wayne Taylor Racing Caddy, with Dane Cameron fifth fastest in the second Acura albeit almost 1sec off its pace-setting sister car.
Mikkel Jensen put Starworks at the head of the LMP2 class, two seconds ahead of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Simon Trummer and 2.3 ahead of the Inter Europol machine of Naveen Rao.
The Porsche 911s maintained their dominance of GT Le Mans this weekend, Nick Tandy lapping 0.030sec than teammate Laurens Vanthoor, with Connor De Phillippi’s BMW M8 in third. Oliver Gavin had a minor off in the #4 Corvette C8.R but was only 0.65sec off top time in class.
Franck Perera kept the Grasser Racing Team at the top of the GT Daytona class, with a 2min02.510sec lap in the Lamborghini Huracan, but Lawson Aschenbach’s Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 was just 0.13sec behind and only one-tenth faster than Ian James in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.
Nick Yelloly, who is subbing for Bill Auberlen in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6, was an impressive sixth fastest despite zero previous experience of the track.
Qualifying for the Sebring 12 Hours begins at 10.15am local time on Friday.
Session results:
| Pos. | # | Drivers | Class | Car | Laps | Time | Gap | mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Hélio Castroneves Ricky Taylor Alexander Rossi | DPi | Acura DPi | 33 | 1'48.358 | 124.255 | |
| 2 | 31 | Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani Gabby Chaves | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 43 | 1'48.535 | 0.177 | 124.052 |
| 3 | 77 |  Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez Olivier Pla | DPi | Mazda DPi | 36 | 1'48.617 | 0.259 | 123.958 |
| 4 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande Ryan Briscoe Scott Dixon | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 32 | 1'48.840 | 0.482 | 123.705 |
| 5 | 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron Simon Pagenaud | DPi | Acura DPi | 30 | 1'49.280 | 0.922 | 123.206 |
| 6 | 5 | Sebastien Bourdais Tristan Vautier Loïc Duval | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 30 | 1'49.379 | 1.021 | 123.095 |
| 7 | 55 | Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell Ryan Hunter-Reay | DPi | Mazda DPi | 36 | 1'49.449 | 1.091 | 123.016 |
| 8 | 85 | Matheus Leist Stephen Simpson Scott Andrews | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 36 | 1'49.615 | 1.257 | 122.830 |
| 9 | 8 |  John Farano Mikkel Jensen David Heinemeier Hansson | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 40 | 1'50.127 | 1.769 | 122.259 |
| 10 | 52 | Patrick Kelly Simon Trummer Scott Huffaker | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 42 | 1'52.063 | 3.705 | 120.147 |
| 11 | 51 |  Jakub Smiechowski Naveen Rao Matthew Bell | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 35 | 1'52.412 | 4.054 | 119.774 |
| 12 | 38 | Don Yount Patrick Byrne Guy Cosmo | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 28 | 1'56.019 | 7.661 | 116.050 |
| 13 | 911 |
| GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 39 | 1'58.170 | 9.812 | 113.938 |
| 14 | 912 | Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor Neel Jani | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 41 | 1'58.200 | 9.842 | 113.909 |
| 15 | 25 | Bruno Spengler Connor de Phillippi Colton Herta | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 39 | 1'58.461 | 10.103 | 113.658 |
| 16 | 3 |  Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nicky Catsburg | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 35 | 1'58.537 | 10.179 | 113.585 |
| 17 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards Augusto Farfus | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 42 | 1'58.677 | 10.319 | 113.451 |
| 18 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fässler | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 34 | 1'58.819 | 10.461 | 113.315 |
| 19 | 11 | Richard Heistand Steijn Schothorst Franck Perera | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 35 | 2'02.510 | 14.152 | 109.901 |
| 20 | 74 | Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach Marc Miller | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 29 | 2'02.640 | 14.282 | 109.785 |
| 21 | 23 | Ian James Roman De Angelis Darren Turner | GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 33 | 2'02.738 | 14.380 | 109.697 |
| 22 | 30 | Rob Ferriol Andrew Davis Pierre Kaffer | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 37 | 2'02.834 | 14.476 | 109.611 |
| 23 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Alessandro Balzan Jeff Westphal | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 31 | 2'02.903 | 14.545 | 109.550 |
| 24 | 96 | Nick Yelloly Robby Foley Dillon Machavern | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 33 | 2'02.945 | 14.587 | 109.512 |
| 25 | 16 | Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long Jan Heylen | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 37 | 2'02.963 | 14.605 | 109.496 |
| 26 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Matthew McMurry Shinya Michimi | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 29 | 2'03.136 | 14.778 | 109.343 |
| 27 | 14 | Jack Hawksworth Aaron Telitz Kyle Kirkwood | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 38 | 2'03.191 | 14.833 | 109.294 |
| 28 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell Michael de Quesada | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 41 | 2'03.316 | 14.958 | 109.183 |
| 29 | 44 | Andy Lally John Potter Spencer Pumpelly | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 21 | 2'03.492 | 15.134 | 109.027 |
| 30 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 28 | 2'03.764 | 15.406 | 108.788 |
| 31 | 57 | Trent Hindman Mikhail Goikhberg Joey Hand | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 32 | 2'03.993 | 15.635 | 108.583 |
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About this article
| Series | IMSA |
| Event | Sebring 12 Hours |
| Drivers | Ricky Taylor |
| Teams | Team Penske |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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