The second practice session for tomorrow’s Tirerack.com Battle on the Bricks, the penultimate round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championhsip, produced a couple of rare occurrences – the Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 toward the top of the time sheet, and both Cadillacs outside the top five.
Louis Delétraz took the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 out with low fuel and fresh tires with less than 15 minutes left in the 90-minute session to claim the top time of the morning, a 1m15.422s (116.42mph), seven-tenths of a second better than yesterday, but well off the track record from last year.
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Felipe Nasr led most of the session before being knocked to second by Delétraz, and while he improved his time in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 on his final lap, he still ended up 0.282s off of the No. 40. Romain Grosjean posted a 1m15.840s in the No. 63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 for the third-best time in the session, the first appearance for the sill-new LMDh car in the top three.
Ricky Taylor turned his best lap in the No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura for the fourth-best time, ahead of Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 PPM 963. Philipp Eng was the best of the BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s in sixth, and the best Cadillac Racing time was posted by Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 V-Series.R.
Ben Hanley led LMP2 for United Autosports in the No. 2 ORECA with a 1m17.560s lap (113.21mph). Tom Dillmann in the championship-leading No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA was 0.172s off Hanley’s best for second, ahead of the other United Autosports entry, the No. 22, with a 1m19.385s posted by Paul Di Resta.
Nicklas Nielsen in the No. 88 AF Corse entry was fourth ahead of yesterday’s quick driver, Mikkel Jensen in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA.
GTD PRO entries headed the GT field, only one GTD car interrupting the top nine in PRO. Laurin Heinrich set the quick time as AO Racing tries to hold on to its slim lead in the GTD PRO championship, a 1m23.424s (105.25mph) in the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R. One of the team’s chief rivals for the title, though, was second-quick, Alex Riberas setting a time only 0.092s slower in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. Daytona winners Risi Competizione were third, Daniel Serra turning a 1m23.525s lap in the No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3.
Marvin Kirchhöfer (Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 EVO) and Nicky Catsburg (No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R) rounded out the top five as the entire GTD PRO field was within eight-tenths of a second.
Anders Fjordbach’s No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3.R was the lone GTD car to insert itself into the top nine of the GTD PRO field, his 1m23.822 good enough to lead the class and make him the eight GT car overall. As Winward Racing looks to clinch the championship this weekend as well as defend last year’s victory, Russell Ward had the No. 57 Mercedes AMG GT3 in second at 1m23.854s. Devlin DeFrancesco was another 0.072s back in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 that podiumed at Indy a year ago.
Gianmarco Levorato had the No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 in fourth, followed by Michell Gatting for the Iron Dames in the No. 83 Lamborghini Huracán. Only two cars in the 22-car GTD field were outside a one-second margin to the leader.
The session was interrupted by a single, three-minute red flag to retrieve the No. 55 Mustang after a spin and stall.
Qualifying for tomorrow’s six-hour race, starting with both GTD classes, begins at 3:40 p.m. ET, carried live on IMSA.tv and Peacock.
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