Reigning IMSA Prototype champion Felipe Nasr set a strong pace in the first practice session for this weekend’s 2019 WeatherTech Sports Car Championship finale at Road Atlanta, while Ford led the way in GT Le Mans, and the Turner Motorsport BMW topped GTD.
Nasr’s Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R lapped the 2.54-mile course in just 69.093sec to eclipse the two Acura Team Penske ARX-05s of Ricky Taylor and Dane Cameron by 0.642 and 0.880sec respectively.
Colin Braun, on CORE autosport’s final run in Prototypes clocked fourth fastest in the Nissan DPi, and Matthieu Vaxiviere sent the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac around fast enough to beat the two Mazda RT24-Ps.
Richard Westbrook led GT Le Mans in the #67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT ahead of the squad’s final race running the sexy four-year-old machines, but being less than two tenths slower wasn’t enough to bag second for teammate Dirk Muller. Risi Competizione roared back to the series – for the first time since January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona – in fine form, and James Calado bagged second spot for the Texas-based squad.
Nick Tandy (Porsche), John Edwards (BMW) and Antonio Garcia (Corvette) were all within three-tenths of top spot.
The session was red-flagged twice for GT Daytona cars – once when Jack Hawksworth picked up a puncture just after passing pitlane entrance, and elected to stop his AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC F on track rather than complete a whole lap with a flailing tire carcass. The second red came late on when Marco Seefried struck a tire wall in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan.
Both those two cars ended up in the top three times – PMR’s best being set by Bryan Sellers – but it was Bill Auberlen who clinched top spot in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6.
Christopher Mies’ Land Motorsport Audi R8 was fourth ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen’s best effort in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 and Toni Vilander in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari.
Second practice begins at 2.50pm local (Eastern) time.
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 |  Felipe Nasr  Eric Curran Pipo Derani | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 9 | 1’09.093 | 132.343 | ||
| 2 | 7 | Ricky Taylor Helio Castroneves Graham Rahal | DPi | Acura DPi | 30 | 1’09.735 | 0.642 | 0.642 | 131.124 |
| 3 | 6 | Dane Cameron  Juan Pablo Montoya  Simon Pagenaud | DPi | Acura DPi | 22 | 1’09.973 | 0.880 | 0.238 | 130.678 |
| 4 | 54 | Jon Bennett Colin Braun Romain Dumas | DPi | Nissan DPi | 28 | 1’10.022 | 0.929 | 0.049 | 130.587 |
| 5 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor Matthieu Vaxiviere | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 31 | 1’10.147 | 1.054 | 0.125 | 130.354 |
| 6 | 77 |  Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez  Timo Bernhard | DPi | Mazda DPi | 32 | 1’10.169 | 1.076 | 0.022 | 130.313 |
| 7 | 55 | Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell Olivier Pla | DPi | Mazda DPi | 15 | 1’10.356 | 1.263 | 0.187 | 129.967 |
| 8 | 85 |  Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier Juan Piedrahita | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 30 | 1’10.774 | 1.681 | 0.418 | 129.199 |
| 9 | 84 |  Simon Trummer  Stephen Simpson Chris Miller | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 34 | 1’10.928 | 1.835 | 0.154 | 128.919 |
| 10 | 50 | Will Owen  Rene Binder Spencer Pigot | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 27 | 1’11.200 | 2.107 | 0.272 | 128.426 |
| 11 | 52 | Matt McMurry Gabriel Aubry Dalton Kellett | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 28 | 1’11.233 | 2.140 | 0.033 | 128.367 |
| 12 | 38 | Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson Andrew Evans | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 31 | 1’11.381 | 2.288 | 0.148 | 128.100 |
| 13 | 67 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook  Scott Dixon | GTLM | Ford GT | 25 | 1’16.810 | 7.717 | 5.429 | 119.046 |
| 14 | 62 | James Calado  Alessandro Pier Guidi Daniel Serra | GTLM | Ferrari 488 GTE | 27 | 1’16.902 | 7.809 | 0.092 | 118.904 |
| 15 | 66 | Joey Hand Dirk Muller Sébastien Bourdais | GTLM | Ford GT | 22 | 1’16.982 | 7.889 | 0.080 | 118.780 |
| 16 | 911 | Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 31 | 1’16.992 | 7.899 | 0.010 | 118.765 |
| 17 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards Philipp Eng | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 24 | 1’17.031 | 7.938 | 0.039 | 118.705 |
| 18 | 3 |  Jan Magnussen  Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 11 | 1’17.080 | 7.987 | 0.049 | 118.629 |
| 19 | 25 | Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi Colton Herta | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 25 | 1’17.205 | 8.112 | 0.125 | 118.437 |
| 20 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 12 | 1’17.361 | 8.268 | 0.156 | 118.198 |
| 21 | 912 | Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor Mathieu Jaminet | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 31 | 1’17.516 | 8.423 | 0.155 | 117.962 |
| 22 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Dillon Machavern | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 31 | 1’19.306 | 10.213 | 1.790 | 115.299 |
| 23 | 14 | Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth Parker Chase | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 19 | 1’19.596 | 10.503 | 0.290 | 114.879 |
| 24 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis Marco Seefried | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 17 | 1’19.670 | 10.577 | 0.074 | 114.773 |
| 25 | 29 | Christopher Mies Richard Feller Daniel Morad | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 27 | 1’19.727 | 10.634 | 0.057 | 114.691 |
| 26 | 33 | Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 24 | 1’19.764 | 10.671 | 0.037 | 114.637 |
| 27 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Jeff Westphal | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 28 | 1’19.776 | 10.683 | 0.012 | 114.620 |
| 28 | 44 | John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 28 | 1’20.023 | 10.930 | 0.247 | 114.266 |
| 29 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman Justin Marks | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 18 | 1’20.070 | 10.977 | 0.047 | 114.199 |
| 30 | 47 | Brandon Gdovic Don Yount  Shinya Michimi | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 20 | 1’20.198 | 11.105 | 0.128 | 114.017 |
| 31 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell Aaron Telitz | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 25 | 1’20.487 | 11.394 | 0.289 | 113.608 |
| 32 | 9 | Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon Lars Kern | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 22 | 1’20.696 | 11.603 | 0.209 | 113.313 |
| 33 | 57 | Katherine Legge Ana Beatriz Christina Nielsen | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 23 | 1’21.412 | 12.319 | 0.716 | 112.317 |
| 34 | 5 |  Joao Barbosa Mike Conway Filipe Albuquerque | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 5 | 1’22.468 | 13.375 | 1.056 | 110.879 |
| View full results | |||||||||
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