Tag: ricky taylor

Detroit breakthrough brings a ‘huge sense of relief’ for WTRAndretti

Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque have been racing partners for four years, and have achieved much during that time. And there’s no denying the winning history of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti in its various guises over the years – …

Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque have been racing partners for four years, and have achieved much during that time. And there’s no denying the winning history of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti in its various guises over the years — championships, Rolex 24 At Daytona victories, Sebring wins … Wayne Taylor is one of the most successful owners in IMSA’s recent history.

There’s also no denying that 2023 was a rough year for the team. Running a single Acura ARX-06 in the first year of the new GTP formula, WTRAndretti suffered a rare winless year, although there was still a chance for a championship heading into Motul Petit Le Mans. Until the team won at Sebring with the second car it added for 2024 with Jordan Taylor, Louis Delétraz and Colton Herta, the most recent victory was at Road America in 2022. That was the last win for Ricky Taylor and Albuquerque.

Until Saturday. And not only did they win, they won it in WTR style, with a ballsy pass for the lead, courtesy of Ricky. Albuquerque had put the No. 10 in position with a fantastic start, and Ricky Taylor sealed the victory despite the apparent overwhelming strength of Porsche Penske Motorsport.

Winning the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on the streets of downtown Detroit — and, no, the irony of Acura winning in Detroit while Cadillac took the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this year was not lost on them — ended a 21-month drought for Taylor and Albuquerque. That meant something.

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“Filipe and I have been together for … this our fourth year,” said Ricky following the Detroit victory. “We’ve had a lot of success together and the 10 car was on a roll for our first three years together. We’ve had a really rough last year and a half. Really struggling, haven’t had a win in a long, long time, and it seemed like nothing could go our way. I think first of all everybody at [Honda Racing Corporation], Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti worked really hard to kind of put us back in the game. Street courses were not our thing. This year we haven’t been fighting really for wins outside of Sebring, and they turned it around here.

“We had we had performance in qualifying — it looked like Filipe and Jordan [Taylor] could have been fighting for a top three very easily. And then at the start of the race, starting from fourth on such a tight track, it’s so difficult to pass we thought a podium would be a bit of a win.”

This is a team and driver pairing that has gone into the finale solidly in the championship fight for the last three years, to the point that finishing a single position ahead of its championship rival would have garnered a title. And for three years they’ve missed that target. But race victories were always on the table, and always a check in the achievement column until last year. But not standing on the top step of the podium didn’t break them; it only made them more determined.

“It’s almost like in a family when you are struggling… in a family when something goes wrong, you just get more united,” said Albuquerque. “Head down; be more humble. Look at details and try to motivate each other on the bad days. So many times we would deserve to win, but things were not coming our way. Just comforting each other — never lose that faith, sticking even more together and knowing that the tables will turn and it’s just around the corner. We just never stopped believing it and I think that’s what happened.”

Albuquerque is no stranger to winning races. And while this one wasn’t one of the “big ones,” it definitely meant something, to the point that it nearly brought him to tears.

“I think this moment just made our team, our Konica Minolta 10 car just stronger. I nearly cried. I mean, it’s just a race … but it felt like almost like winning the 24 hours of Le Mans or Daytona, just because it’s so special. We’ve been suffering so much … I’m not saying unfair but it’s sometimes like we would deserve definitely some wins, but things didn’t come our way. But today came to our side and I’m just super happy that it’s out of the way and now I think it’s the relief of going forward.”

Albuquerque (left) and Ricky Taylor had to wait a long time for this one… Brett Farmer/Motorsport Images

The gap between victories shouldn’t have been that big. Long Beach in 2023 should have gone their way, but a slight miscue during the single pit stop and driver change scuttled their chances. The team learned from its mistakes and made some changes. On Saturday, the single pit stop in the 100-minute race went perfectly.

“The guys nailed the pit stop with the driver change … the driver changes aren’t about the drivers – we can only mess it up – they nailed the pitstop and all the little details went well,” explained Taylor. “Filipe had an amazing start. Without any little detail of that happening the way it did, we don’t win the race. All the tiny decisions on the systems — the set up throughout the weekend understanding all of our practice without IndyCar rubber, and how it evolved…. I can name 100 things that led to the way that the car was and what led to us getting the win.”

Those are the details that make the difference between winning or being runner-up or missing the podium entirely. And finally the No. 10 notched a victory in GTP.

“It’s a huge sense of relief. Every weekend we keep saying we just need to put it together and it’s little details at this level where it separates wins from from being off the podium,” Taylor said. “One thing we can say is we’ve always done our best we’ve never sort of given up and motivation kept increasing, like it doesn’t go down when you stop winning — it keeps going up and we wanted to win more than ever coming in here.”

WTR Andretti motors back to IMSA victory lane in Detroit

On a tight street course where passing was considered to be at an absolute premium, Ricky Taylor proved it was possible in scooting past Mathieu Jaminet to deliver not only the first victory for the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura …

On a tight street course where passing was considered to be at an absolute premium, Ricky Taylor proved it was possible in scooting past Mathieu Jaminet to deliver not only the first victory for the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 of the season, but the first GTP victory for Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque. For the team that had gone without a win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since 2022, claiming the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in the first IMSA race on the downtown Detroit street circuit was an emotional occasion.

Meanwhile AO Racing’s Sebastian Priaulx and Laurin Heinrich scored their second-consecutive victory thanks in large part to every car that made it to the front of GTD PRO having an issue, starting with alternator trouble for the polesitting No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, Antonio Garcia pulling the car into the pits for a lengthy stop right after the race start.

No surprise for a tight, 1.654-mile, nine-turn street circuit, the 100-minute race was marked by a surfeit of contact and full-course cautions, five in total, including one with a full track blockage after Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R hit and spun Richard Westbrook in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 int he tight Turn 1. Many of the incidents affected frontrunners in both GTP and GTD, either as victims or perpetrators.

Starting fourth, Albuquerque made the first move toward the front at the green flag, getting a “buy one, get one free” as he described it by passing both Dane Cameron in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, who was slowed getting passed by Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, and then getting by Bourdais as well. But in the early stages of the race, he had nothing for Nick Tandy in the No. 6 PPM 963.

“We were happy about this weekend,” said Albuquerque. “We had more pace than in the past, in other races, so we knew we could do well. But to be honest, after what’s been happening to us, we need to be humble and we’ve got to start somewhere, so a podium would be good for us. But in the end of the day, we are racers, we go where it takes us and whatever the opportunity takes. The start was a good example of that.”

Albuquerque was gifted the lead a short time later, but Taylor would have to get it back with his pass. Although the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 had started on the pole courtesy of Tandy, the fact that Jaminet had the lead to lose was nothing short of remarkable and the result of a stroke of luck. Tandy had made contact with Daniel Serra in the No. 35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 under braking for Turn 3 and spun the Ferrari. Determined to have responsibility for the incident, the No. 6 received a drive-through penalty, handing the lead to Albuquerque.

Dropped through the field, Tandy stayed out long after most of the GTP field pitted, most of which started as soon as the window to make it to the end of the race on fuel opened. Having cycled to the lead, he put in quick laps at the front. Pitting with just over an hour left, PPM was blessed with a massive gift — a full course caution for the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 stopped on the Jefferson Ave. straight. That allowed Mathieu Jaminet to emerge from the stop in the lead, also helped by the fact that the Porsche needed less fuel to make it to the end.

It looked like Jaminet had what he needed to keep the point, but shortly after the penultimate restart, Taylor clearly had something for him. With Taylor sticking to the back of the Porsche, Jaminet seemed to let his guard down as the pair passed a GT car on the Jefferson Ave. straight. Taylor saw his opportunity and took it, diving to the inside and taking the line away from the Porsche on the entry to Turn 3.

“The Porsche was really strong on short runs on restarts,” explained Taylor. “So the longer it went, we could kind of claw our way back. The Acura guys and the whole team has made a really strong car in the braking and that was really where we’re able to do it. I think had it not been for that one GT car, if we’d had all those restarts after and the way the race went, that was probably my last shot to get him and I’m really relieved that that we took advantage of it because it was still quite a long ways to go. You would have thought there would have been more opportunities, but with how good they were on restarts, I don’t think I would have had another chance.”

Jaminet made no attempt to hide his disappointment with finishing second in a race that he believed the team should have won.

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“I caught traffic at the wrong spot, Turn 1 and Turn 2, that gave him a shot and I underestimated how close he was,” Jaminet said “We were struggling a little bit on the brakes and it seemed to be their strength, so he used the opportunity and [Taylor] did a good move and kind of made it stop. Congrats to them. From my side, yeah, not happy with myself because this is definitely not one of my my best drives today. So something that will work on for the for the future that this doesn’t happen again.”

Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, winners in Long Beach, finished fourth in the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R. The No. 7 PPM 963 was fifth with Cameron and Felipe Nasr fifth in the No. 7 PPM 963, making a recovery drive after Nasr suffered a tire puncture and had to make a second call to the pits.

Cameron and Nasr extended their points lead in the GTP standings, holding 1669 points to 1599 for Bourdais and van der Zande, now in second after a tough weekend for the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing squad of Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken, who finished sixth and fell from second to fourth in the points. Jaminet and Tandy sit third with 1586 points.

The AO Racing Porsche came away with the GTD PRO win. Brett Farmer/Lumen

Like the GTP-winning Acura squad, Priaulx and Heinrich started fourth with the No. 777 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, Rexy sporting a new gold tooth after the team’s win at Laguna Seca last month. However, starting with the problem for Garcia, cars in front of them struck trouble.

That include a two-for-one incident that almost cost AO the race and left them to survive to the end with a broken splitter. Heinrich was pursuing the leading pair of Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Ben Barnicoat in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 when the two came to blows in Turn 3. Barnicoat dove inside the Corvette while Catsburg tried to close the door and the two cars made contact, the Corvette ending up backwards.

Heinrich had tried to go to the outside as the two combatants had moved toward the inside, but ended nosing into the Corvette.

“The Lexus and the Corvette they were going for it into the hairpin and I saw that, so I wanted to put myself in the best position I could be – A, to stay safe and, B, to capitalize on it,” explained Heinrich of the incident. “They got caught up in an incident and me being on the outside of a really sharp turn. Unfortunately, I hit the spun Corvette. It’s the characteristics of street circuit; there’s not much space to avoid.

“You had a hit, but you don’t know how the car looks from the outside. So immediately went on the radio asking how does it look on the TV images? How did the car look when I passed? At first glance it looked quite OK. But once I came back to the to the backstraight, the splitter was going up and down and touching the floor. It was horrendous inside the car at the end of the race. I couldn’t see any more, it was vibrating that bad. I could adapt quite well – we have some tools in the car with the TC, brake bias, ABS to to help this understeer which which will happen if you have splitter damage. I adapted my driving style quite well, and I think we didn’t have to compromise so much pace,” he continued.

Heinrich got away first to take the lead, pursued by Barnicoat. The Lexus hung with the Porsche for a while, despite missing the majority of the nose of the car and occasionally shedding bits of carbon fiber, but eventually faded from the fight, leaving Heinrich to drive unimpeded to the checker.

“I couldn’t be prouder of everyone on the team and just how they’ve been working this year,” said Priaulx. “It’s just amazing that we’ve had two wins with these pro guys and factory teams. We’re just a single-car team and I’m just sort of gobsmacked that we’re winning these races. And Laurin here … my teammate is actually awesome, did a mega job to get the car home with this damage that we had. He just wanted to get it round to be honest. So super proud of the guys.”

Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth ended up second place at the checker, followed by Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo he took over from Ross Gunn.

Riberas was involved in an incident of his own that left the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720 S GT3 Evo in the tires in Turn 3 in the closing minutes of the race. Until that point, it looked like Marvin Kirchofer was poised to claim the first GTD PRO podium for McLaren.

Parker Thompson and Frankie Montecalvo, making a guest appearance in GTD PRO for Vasser Sullivan Racing in the absence of GTD, finished fourth in the No. 15 Lexus RC F. Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow were fifth in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3.

With their second victory of the season, Priaulx and Heinrich bolstered their points lead, their 1359 points 84 ahead of Barnicoat and Hawksworth. Gunn, who ran Laguna Seca without regular co-driver Riberas due to a WEC conflict, sits third at 1192. Sellers and Snow are fourth, while Catsburg and Milner are fifth ahead of teammates Garcia and Alexander Sims.

RESULTS

Rolex 24, Hour 1: Major players involved in early incidents

Two caution periods and multiple severely damaged cars, including a top GTD PRO contender, have been the signature of the opening hour of the 62nd Rolex 24 at Daytona, with the first hour ending under yellow. Ricky Taylor leads after the No. 10 …

Two caution periods and multiple severely damaged cars, including a top GTD PRO contender, have been the signature of the opening hour of the 62nd Rolex 24 at Daytona, with the first hour ending under yellow. Ricky Taylor leads after the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti crew didn’t give the Acura ARX-06 a full load of energy in order to gain track position when everyone stopped during the first caution.

That yellow came 26 minutes into the race when Misha Goikhberg lost the GTD No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 on the entry into the Le Mans Chicane, impacting the tire wall on drivers’ left with the right side of the car. Goikhberg was evaluated and released from the care center. The team is working on the car, but it will require extensive repair.

Caution number two came after multiple incidents following the restart. The first involved three LMP2 cars in the Le Mans Chicane — Steven Thomas in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA went inside PJ Hyett in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA, they made contact and spun, and were joined by Dwight Merriman in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA, who perhaps spun in avoidance. All three cars continued.

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The second incident was more serious, with Dennis Andersen spinning the No. 20 High Class Racing ORECA LMP2 car in Turn 2, leaving Mike Conway, who had just taken over the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, nowhere to go. The Lexus made heavy contact with the LMP2, damaging the radiator in shades of the car’s exit from Motul Petit Le Mans last October. Conway didn’t make it around to the pits and the Lexus had to be taken back to the garage on a rollback. Conway was evaluated and cleared from the care center.

AWA’s No. 13 Corvette has struck mechanical trouble, first not starting as cars rolled out for the pace laps, then making multiple trips to the pits before Orey Fidani finally took the car to the garage. A fuel pump is one of the suspected issues, but there are others as well, and the car was in the garage as the first hour ended.

Daniel Serra was making a charge to the front of the GTD PRO field in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, but had a long stop due to an issue with the air jacks and now has 27 cars separating the Ferrari from the front.

HOUR 1 STANDINGS

WTR on staying in the mix: ‘We feel so lucky to be still in the fight’

Daytona seemed a sure indicator that Wayne Taylor Racing was going to have another strong season, just as Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque have taken the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to the wire the last two years, albeit falling short …

Daytona seemed a sure indicator that Wayne Taylor Racing was going to have another strong season, just as Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque have taken the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to the wire the last two years, albeit falling short each time. While they missed standing on the top step of the podium at Daytona with the No. 10 Acura ARX-06 in Victory Lane, they showed pace as the new era of GTP began, and after penalties were applied to Rolex 24 winners Meyer Shank Racing, had the points lead.

Fighting for victory in the latter stages of the 12 Hours of Sebring. Pole and dominance at Long Beach until a pit stop miscue. In both those races, while lunging for the lead, there were disasters and DNFs. Last year WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca produced WTR’s first win of the season. This year they were fourth. Then came a mechanical DNF at the Glen. Finally, Sunday, another second-place finish at Canadian Tire Motorsports park that, had the yellows fallen a bit differently, could very well have been a victory.

Still, Albuquerque and Taylor, in three years together at WTR, haven’t been winless this far into a season. Yet Sunday’s result, with some bad luck by other contenders, have them third in the championship, only 29 points out of first, occupied by Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims. The No. 31 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R fielded by AXR, despite showing good pace, fell afoul of some unfortunate yellows that didn’t jibe with their pit stop strategy, plus Sims had to make an extra trip through the pits when they tried to beat a full-course caution and entered a closed pit lane.

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“We feel so lucky to be still in the fight,” Taylor declared. “The No. 31, they had bad luck today — as much luck as we had to beat that yellow that we weren’t even trying to beat. And for it to be a short yellow on top of that… And for them to enter the closed pit by, like, nothing… That was a lot of luck in our favor, and a lot of bad luck against them. That’s racing, and it comes and goes. Just like the traffic comes and goes, that luck comes and goes and hopefully that’s a sign that our season is headed in the right direction. We don’t expect to get these kinds of days every weekend, so we’re going to need to execute and keep doing these sorts of clean performances the rest of the year and make sure we put in put ourselves in a situation to be lucky more often.”

The fact that WTR has three DNFs, no wins, and is still in the thick of the title fight shows the part that luck plays in motorsports, and perhaps never more than this season in which everyone is dealing with new equipment. Until CTMP, no team has scored a repeat victory, and even then, Meyer Shank Racing doesn’t have the points to reflect two wins.

“We were talking…the other day that we rarely do DNF,” said Albuquerque. “But it happens. And I think this season has been demonstrating exactly that it is ups and downs for everyone. Like Watkins Glen … right after, I think the championship was done for us, because the gap to the Porsche was too much. Then they got penalized and, oh, there’s some hope. And then the No. 31 — they were doing a really good job, but then it just tricked them.

“It’s impressive how it swings back to one side from the other, so I think (it’s) just a good lesson as well — whoever is behind, it’s still possible to go for the front. So we just need to be staying away from problems. I think the team did an amazing job. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t want to jinx this this thing. But I think we covered our strategy in a way that we pitted the first moment that it was possible to (go to) the end. And then, yes, we were lucky that the yellow came on. But we were already there.”

There are three races left for the GTP competitors – Road America, Indianapolis and Petit Le Mans – and it’s still anyone’s fight. The spread between first and fourth in the championship is only 63 points, less than the difference between first and fourth in a single race. And that top four encompasses four different teams and four different manufacturers — a scenario that seemed most unlikely as the season began; almost as unlikely as Albuquerque and Taylor being in the battle with the season they’ve had so far.

Ricky Taylor quickest in FP2 as Acuras go one-two at CTMP

Ricky Taylor and Tom Blomqvist jockeyed for fast time in the final 15 minutes of the second practice session for the IMSA WeatehrTech SportsCar Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Taylor eventually dipped into the 1m05s range in the No. …

Ricky Taylor and Tom Blomqvist jockeyed for fast time in the final 15 minutes of the second practice session for the IMSA WeatehrTech SportsCar Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

Taylor eventually dipped into the 1m05s range in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 to edge last year’s polesitter by 0.268s with a 1m05.870s lap. Blomqvist posted a 1m06.138s in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 to make it an Acura one-two in the session. There was a 0.6s back to the best of the rest, Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.

Sebastien Bourdais spun the No. 01 Cadillac exiting Moss Corner on fresh tires, bringing out a red flag in the final 15 minutes and perhaps throwing a wrench into the pro teams’ qualifying simulation plans. Although the stoppage was short, it came during a crucial time for the teams to get heat into the tires and put in a fast lap. Bourdais recovered to post a 1m06.776s lap for fourth in the session, followed by Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 PPM 963.

Jack Hawksworth threw in a flyer in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 before the Vasser Sullivan team brought him into the pits to practice pit stops. His 1m14.959s lap to lead GTD PRO was quickest of all the GT cars. Behind GTD leader Loris Spinelli, Jules Gounon was second for WeatherTech Racing in the No. 79 Mercedes AMG at 1m15.309s, followed by Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R, another 0.175s back.

Spinelli continued to show his pace and the continued improvement of the No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán Evo2, finishing the session with the fastest lap of the GTD cars, 1m15.269s. Frederik Schandorff in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S was second, 0.408s off Spinelli’s best, followed by Madison Snow was third with a 1m15.721s lap in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3.

Mikael Grenier (No. 32 Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG) and Kay van Berlo (No. 91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3R) completed the top five in GTD. The No. 80 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3R missed the majority of the session while the team finished an engine change, only making a few laps at the end.

Home-track knowledge continued to show the way in LMP3 as Garett Grist again topped the charts with a 1m11.766s lap in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier. The order from yesterday’s first practice was repeated in the top three, with Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier second (1m11.960s) and Matt Bell in the No. 13 AWA Racing Duqueine third at 1m12.109s.

UP NEXT: Qualifying at 12:45pm ET, streamed live on IMSA.tv.

RESULTS

Ricky Taylor leads as Acuras pace first Long Beach IMSA practice

Filipe Albuquerque predicted that Acura had closed the gap to Cadillac on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s rougher circuits such, and he and co-driver Ricky Taylor delivered solid evidence that he was correct during the first practice …

Filipe Albuquerque predicted that Acura had closed the gap to Cadillac on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s rougher circuits such, and he and co-driver Ricky Taylor delivered solid evidence that he was correct during the first practice session for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

As the GTP cars are getting their first experience on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit, Taylor snatched the fast time from Albuquerque late in the hour-long session, then lowered it several times, finally setting a 1m11.942s lap on his final circuit in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport ARX-06. Tom Blomqvist was second in the other ARX-06, the No. 60 entry from Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian, with a 0.858s margin to Taylor.

The two Porsche Penske Motorsports 963s were next, Mathieu Jaminet setting the third-quickest time at 1m13.550s in the No. 6, with Augusto Farfus completing the top five in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8. Outside of Taylor’s stellar lap, second through sixth (Pipo Derani, No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R) were covered by a second.

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Defending Long Beach GTD PRO winners Heart of Racing topped that class, Alex Riberas turning a 1m19.303s lap in the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Jack Hawksworth was only 0.71s shy in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. With a 1m19.660s lap, Jordan Taylor was third with a time that put him behind the first GTD entry as 19 GT cars were covered by one second.

Alec Udell led the GTD class in the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R with a 1m19.488s lap good for third overall among the GTs. Loris Spinelli was second in the No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, 0.201s slower than Udell. Bryan Sellers was third in the 2022 Long Beach-winning No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 with a 1m19.697s lap.

UP NEXT: The second, and last, practice session before qualifying, a 1h45m split session at 3:45pm ET.

RESULTS