IMSA Road Atlanta: Derani, AXR lead opening practice
Pipo Derani’s Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R led the first practice session for this weekend’s six-hour IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Derani’s 69.743sec lap of the 2.54-mile course was 0.389sec clear of the similar JDC-Miller car of Sebastien Bourdais who in turn was over a quarter-second clear of the fastest turbocharged prototype.
That honor went to Harry Tincknell with his 41st and final lap of the session in the #55 Mazda RT24-P, which just inched him ahead of Renger van der Zande in a third Cadillac, that of Wayne Taylor Racing.
Oliver Jarvis made it two Mazdas in the top five, 0.2sec ahead of Helio Castroneves in the only Acura ARX-05 that set a representative time. The #6 car of Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron had a mechanical issue on an out lap.
Kyle Tilley of Era Motorsport and Simon Trummer of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport, driving the only LMP2 cars participating in this weekend’s race, were seventh and ninth overall, only 1.15 and 1.6sec respectively off the ultimate pace.
The Porsche 911 RSRs of Earl Bamber and Fred Makowiecki were a mere 0.014sec apart at the head of the GT Le Mans field, with John Edwards 0.185sec behind in the #24 BMW M8, followed by the two Corvette C8s.
Andy Lally drove Magnus Racing’s Lamborghini Huracan to the top of the times in GT Daytona, just 0.048sec quicker than Paul Miller Racing’s similar machine in the hands of Bryan Sellers.
Bill Auberlen, who last week scored his 61st IMSA victory at VIR, grabbed third for Turner Motorsports ahead of Ryan Hardwick in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and Alvaro Parente in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX.
Second practice begins at 2.25pm local Eastern Time, with qualifying at 6.35pm.
| cla | num | drivers | class | car | laps | time | gap | int | mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 |  Luiz Felipe Nasr Filipe Albuquerque Luis Felipe Derani |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 38 | 1’09.743 | 131.109 | ||
| 2 | 5 | João Barbosa Sebastien Bourdais Tristan Vautier |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 31 | 1’10.132 | 0.389 | 0.389 | 130.382 |
| 3 | 55 |  Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell Ryan Hunter-Reay |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 41 | 1’10.404 | 0.661 | 0.272 | 129.878 |
| 4 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande Ryan Briscoe |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 35 | 1’10.482 | 0.739 | 0.078 | 129.734 |
| 5 | 77 | Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez Olivier Pla |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 36 | 1’10.673 | 0.930 | 0.191 | 129.384 |
| 6 | 7 | Hélio Castroneves Ricky Taylor |
DPi | Acura DPi | 26 | 1’10.882 | 1.139 | 0.209 | 129.002 |
| 7 | 18 | Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Colin Braun |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 31 | 1’10.910 | 1.167 | 0.028 | 128.951 |
| 8 | 85 | Matheus Leist Stephen Simpson |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 38 | 1’11.073 | 1.330 | 0.163 | 128.656 |
| 9 | 52 | Patrick Kelly Simon Trummer Scott Huffaker |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 41 | 1’11.369 | 1.626 | 0.296 | 128.122 |
| 10 | 912 |  Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 33 | 1’17.552 | 7.809 | 6.183 | 117.907 |
| 11 | 911 | Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 33 | 1’17.566 | 7.823 | 0.014 | 117.886 |
| 12 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 38 | 1’17.751 | 8.008 | 0.185 | 117.605 |
| 13 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 31 | 1’17.775 | 8.032 | 0.024 | 117.569 |
| 14 | 3 |  Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 28 | 1’18.225 | 8.482 | 0.450 | 116.893 |
| 15 | 25 |  Bruno Spengler Connor de Phillippi |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 30 | 1’18.294 | 8.551 | 0.069 | 116.790 |
| 16 | 44 | Andy Lally John Potter Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 32 | 1’20.538 | 10.795 | 2.244 | 113.536 |
| 17 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 28 | 1’20.586 | 10.843 | 0.048 | 113.468 |
| 18 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Dillon Machavern |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 38 | 1’20.713 | 10.970 | 0.127 | 113.290 |
| 19 | 16 | Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long Jan Heylen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 36 | 1’20.914 | 11.171 | 0.201 | 113.008 |
| 20 | 57 | Alvaro Parente Mikhail Goikhberg Trent Hindman |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 32 | 1’21.006 | 11.263 | 0.092 | 112.880 |
| 21 | 14 | Jack Hawksworth Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 34 | 1’21.022 | 11.279 | 0.016 | 112.857 |
| 22 | 12 | Townsend Bell Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 38 | 1’21.031 | 11.288 | 0.009 | 112.845 |
| 23 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Jeff Westphal |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 6 | 1’21.034 | 11.291 | 0.003 | 112.841 |
| 24 | 74 | Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach Ben Keating |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 33 | 1’21.130 | 11.387 | 0.096 | 112.707 |
| 25 | 86 |  Mario Farnbacher Matthew McMurry Shinya Michimi |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 34 | 1’21.132 | 11.389 | 0.002 | 112.704 |
| 26 | 11 | Richard Heistand Steijn Schothorst Richard Westbrook |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 34 | 1’21.258 | 11.515 | 0.126 | 112.530 |
| 27 | 23 | Ian James Roman De Angelis |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 14 | 1’24.783 | 15.040 | 3.525 | 107.851 |
| 28 | 6 |  Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron |
DPi | Acura DPi | 4 | 0.000 |
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