Acura to the top in second Petit Le Mans practice
Jordan Taylor stole the fastest time from Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti teammate Filipe Albuquerque with 12m left in Thursday’s 1h25m second practice session for Saturday’s 10h Motul Petit Le Mans. Taylor’s 1m11.081s lap in the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 around the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta was good for a 126.64mph average.
A flurry of fast laps as teams tested setups for tomorrow afternoon’s qualifying session pushed Albuquerque’s No. 10 Acura further down the order. First, Jack Aitken posted a time 0.078s short of Taylor’s best for the second-quickest time. Aitken’s No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R had led much of the session with Tom Blomqvist setting a quick time early on. Nick Tandy pushed Albuquerque to fourth with a 1m11.366s lap in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.
Philipp Eng completed the top five in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, making it four manufacturers in the top five. Sebastien Bourdais was sixth in the session, but maintained the top time of the day after having set a 1m11.013s in the cooler first session.
“Today the car’s been very quick,” said Bourdais’s teammate in the No. 01, Scott Dixon. “It’s particularly difficult to get a clear lap, which I think everybody’s struggling with. But when you do, the car really comes alive. Cadillac has done a very good job and refining the car over the years that we’ve been part of the program. Hopefully we’ve got the speed and, when it comes down to the last couple hours, we’re still in the fight.”
Mikkel Jensen topped LMP2 with a 1m13.373s (124.62mph) lap in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA. Connor Zilisch, after holding the best time for most of the session, ended up a mere 0.001s off in second in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA. That car would later cause the only red flag of the session, a two-minute break, when it lost a left-rear wheel under braking for Turn 10 on Ryan Dalziel’s first flying lap. Dalziel got the car back to the pits, and the team fixed it to get Dwight Merriman some test time in the car.
Felipe Fraga was third for Riley Motorsports with a 1m13.786s time in the No. 74 ORECA. Paul-Loup Chatin (No. 99 AO Racing) and Nico Pino (No. 2 United Autosports) rounded out the top five.
Daniel Serra set the best time in GTD PRO as Risi Competizione seeks to secure the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup with its No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3. His 1m18.722s (116.15mph) was 0.015s better than Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3.
“The second session we improved a lot compared to the first session. We still have a lot of work to do, especially in tire degradation, which is quite high at this track,” said Serra. “I think the most important session is the next one that is cooler and when the race will finish, so now we need to understand what we have to do with the car for that situation and prepare for it.”
Ross Gunn, attempting to supplant Laurin Heinrich in the drivers championship, was third for Heart of Racing in the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo with a 1m18.768s lap.
Antonio Garcia was fourth in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, the last PRO car before the top two GTD cars, and Heinrich rounded out the top five in the NO. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. There were six different marques in the top six, Ferrari the first repeat in seventh.
Those first two GTD cars up toward the fast end of the overall GTD field were the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus with Parker Thompson at the wheel (1m18.916s) and Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG at 1m18.992. Robby Foley was third, behind Heinrich, with a 1m19.278s lap in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3. Simon Mann (No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari) and Mike Skeen (No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports) completed the top five. The top 17 GT cars overall were within a second.
The third practice session for Petit Le Mans, the 1h30m night practice, begins at 7:30 p.m. ET.