Laguna Seca IMSA: Taylor heads Acura 1-2 in FP3

Acura Team Penske maintained its supremacy in third practice for this weekend’s Laguna Seca IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round, with Ricky Taylor setting the pace in the #7 car.

Taylor laid down a benchmark of 1m15.497s early on in the one-hour Saturday morning session, but the #7 Acura caused a red flag when Helio Castroneves beached the pace-setting ARX-05 in the gravel at the top of the Corkscrew.

Castroneves avoided picking up any significant damage, though, and the car was back out for the final part of the session, as championship leader Juan Pablo Montoya made a late jump up to second in the sister #6 machine with a 1m15.857s effort.

Best of the rest was the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, which has been boosted by recent Balance of Performance adjustments for this round, with Renger van der Zande ending up 0.538s off the pace in third.

Oliver Jarvis’s early benchmark behind the wheel of the #77 Mazda RT24-P was enough for fourth in the end, ahead of the #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque and the second of the Joest-run Mazdas, the #55 car of Harry Tincknell.

The title-contending #31 AXR Cadillac ended up down in ninth, with ex-Formula 1 racer Felipe Nasr’s best effort putting that car 1.104s off the pace.

Kyle Masson’s best effort of 1m18.251s was enough to put Performance Tech ahead of sole LMP2 rival PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.

Ford set the pace in GT Le Mans with Richard Westbrook setting a best time of 1m22.034s in the #67 car, 0.230s ahead of Tom Blomqvist’s best effort in the #24 BMW M8 GTE.

Dirk Muller made it two Fords inside the top three in the #66 GT, ahead of Oliver Gavin in the best of the Corvette C7.Rs, while both Porsche 911 RSRs ended up propping up the class order in seventh and eighth places.

Turner Motorsports set the pace in GT Daytona courtesy of Robby Foley’s 1m24.523s effort in the #96 BMW M6 GT3, a little under two tenths clear of Corey Lewis in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Andy Lally was third-fastest in Magnus Racing’s Lambo ahead of the points-leading Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 of Trent Hindman.

Session results:

ClaNumDriverClassChassisTimeGap
17 Ricky Taylor
Helio Castroneves
DPiAcura DPi1’15.497 
26 Dane Cameron
Juan Pablo Montoya
DPiAcura DPi1’15.8570.360
310 Renger van der Zande
Jordan Taylor
DPiCadillac DPi1’16.0350.538
477 Oliver Jarvis
Tristan Nunez
DPiMazda DPi1’16.0880.591
55 Joao Barbosa
Filipe Albuquerque
DPiCadillac DPi1’16.1940.697
655 Jonathan Bomarito
Harry Tincknell
DPiMazda DPi1’16.2960.799
785 Mikhail Goikhberg
Tristan Vautier
DPiCadillac DPi1’16.3110.814
854 Jon Bennett
Colin Braun
DPiNissan DPi1’16.4600.963
931 Felipe Nasr
Pipo Derani
DPiCadillac DPi1’16.6011.104
1084 Simon Trummer
Stephen Simpson
DPiCadillac DPi1’16.9781.481
1138 Cameron Cassels
Kyle Masson
LMP2ORECA LMP21’18.2512.754
1252 Matt McMurry
Dalton Kellett
LMP2ORECA LMP21’19.0853.588
1367 Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook
GTLMFord GT1’22.0346.537
1425 Connor de Phillippi
Tom Blomqvist
GTLMBMW M8 GTE1’22.2646.767
1566 Joey Hand
Dirk Muller
GTLMFord GT1’22.5187.021
164 Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner
GTLMCorvette C7.R1’22.5677.070
173 Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia
GTLMCorvette C7.R1’22.6357.138
1824 Jesse Krohn
John Edwards
GTLMBMW M8 GTE1’22.7297.232
19911 Patrick Pilet
Nick Tandy
GTLMPorsche 911 RSR1’22.8397.342
20912 Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor
GTLMPorsche 911 RSR1’23.0587.561
2196 Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley
GTDBMW M6 GT31’24.5239.026
2248 Bryan Sellers
Corey Lewis
GTDLamborghini Huracan GT31’24.7209.223
2344 John Potter
Andy Lally
GTDLamborghini Huracan GT31’24.9609.463
2486 Mario Farnbacher
Trent Hindman
GTDAcura NSX GT31’25.0619.564
2533 Ben Keating
Jeroen Bleekemolen
GTDMercedes-AMG GT31’25.0709.573
2612 Frankie Montecalvo
Townsend Bell
GTDLexus RC F GT31’25.1279.630
279 Scott Hargrove
Zacharie Robichon
GTDPorsche 911 GT3 R1’25.1599.662
2863 Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander
GTDFerrari 488 GT31’25.2109.713
2914 Richard Heistand
Jack Hawksworth
GTDLexus RC F GT31’25.2859.788
3076 Paul Holton
Matt Plumb
GTDMcLaren 720S GT31’25.3449.847
3157 Katherine Legge
Christina Nielsen
GTDAcura NSX GT31’25.4349.937
3273 Patrick Lindsey
Patrick Long
GTDPorsche 911 GT3 R0.000 

 

 

 

 

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