The names at the top of the time sheet for the first practice session of the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic changed quickly and often as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers acclimated to the 1.654-mile, nine-turn street circuit they saw for the first time at speed. All four manufacturers were represented in the top five, led by Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.
With the WeatherTech Championship cars the first on course for the weekend, the session was red flagged for 15 minutes while a manhole cover on the back straight was attended to.
Tandy’s 1m06.899s lap (89.01mph) was 0.58s better than the rest of the field, led by Nick Yelloly in the No 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8. Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 was third at 1m07.705s.
BMW M Team RLL’s Phlipp Eng trailed Taylor by 0.06s for fourth quickest in the session, while Renger van der Zande was the best of the Cadillac runners in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R in fifth.
Alexander Sims fired the first shot for Chevrolet in the Motown battle, posting a best time of 1m10.509 (84.45mph) to lead GTD PRO in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R. Joey Hand, though — the only driver in the field with previous experience on the circuit — was not far off driving the No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 with a 1m10.846s lap to split the Two Corvettes at the top, Tommy Milner third in the No. 4 Corvette 0.043s off Hand’s best.
Albert Costa Balboa was fourth in the No. 35 Ferrari 296 GT3 as Conquest Racing makes its GTD PRO debut, followed by AO Racing’s Seb Priaulx in the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The second practice session for the WeatherTech Championship begins at 11:30am ET.