Petit Le Mans IMSA: Cadillac leads Acura in first practice

It was Earl Bamber who set fastest time in the Cadillac DPi-V.R, delivering a 69.583sec lap of the 2.54 mile course to lead the DPi field by 0.332sec. Championship contender Tom Blomqvist was 0.332sec adrift in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05, who had a further two-tenth edge over the second Ganassi Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais.

Pipo Derani was 0.661sec behind in Action Express Racing’s full-time entry, and only 0.18 quicker than Kamui Kobayashi in the Ally-sponsored #48 AXR car, which the ex-F1 driver shares with Mike Rockenfeller and Jimmie Johnson.

Filipe Albuquerque was sixth for Wayne Taylor Racing, ahead of Tristan Vautier in the JDC Miller Motorsports Cadillac, but this pair ended the session an unrepresentative second adrift of Bamber’s time.

Louis Deletraz, sharing the Tower Motorsports #8 entry with LMP2 points leader John Farano, was fastest in class ahead of Sebastian Montoya’s DragonSpeed Racing entry, while Ryan Dalziel was third for Era Motorsport.

Scott Huffaker brought out a red flag when his PR1/Mathiasen car hit the wall.

In LMP3, Colin Braun led for CORE autosport ahead of Gar Robinson in the Riley Motorsports entry and Garett Grist’s Jr III machine.

Jack Hawksworth set fastest time of the two GT categories, his GTD Pro Lexus RC lapping in 1min19.384sec to shade Bryan Sellers’ effort in the GTD Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 by barely more than a tenth of a second.

Jaden Conwright continues to impress, slipping the NTE/SSR Lamborghini into third fastest of the GTs, second fastest of the GTD pro-am.

Russell Ward, who has won the class at the last two rounds with Philip Ellis, maintained his momentum, to go third fastest ahead of the other Lexus of Aaron Telitz and the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jan Heylen.

Petit Le Mans - FP1 results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Ryan Hunter-Reay	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'09.583
2	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves	DPi	Acura DPi	1'09.915	0.332
3	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'10.119	0.536
4	31	Olivier Pla Pipo Derani Mike Conway	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'10.244	0.661
5	48	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'10.424	0.841
6	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Brendon Hartley	DPi	Acura DPi	1'10.615	1.032
7	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'10.786	1.203
8	8	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'11.320	1.737
9	81	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'11.508	1.925
10	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'11.593	2.010
11	11	Steven Thomas Josh Pierson Tristan Nunez	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'11.755	2.172
12	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'13.240	3.657
13	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'13.573	3.990
14	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'15.676	6.093
15	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'15.691	6.108
16	30	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'16.709	7.126
17	13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'16.730	7.147
18	36	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Josh Burdon	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'16.760	7.177
19	38	Daniel Goldburg Cameron Shields Tyler Maxson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'16.959	7.376
20	33	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Pino	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'17.234	7.651
21	76	Anthony Mantella Kyle Marcelli Josh Sarchet	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'19.048	9.465
22	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	1'19.384	9.801
23	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'19.500	9.917
24	42	Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'19.590	10.007
25	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'19.711	10.128
26	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'19.723	10.140
27	16	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'19.776	10.193
28	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'19.810	10.227
29	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'19.837	10.254
30	62	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon James Calado	GTD PRO	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'19.907	10.324
31	70	Brendan Iribe Jordan Lee Pepper Sebastian Priaulx	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'19.962	10.379
32	21	Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'19.987	10.404
33	39	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'20.118	10.535
34	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Jesse Krohn	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	1'20.147	10.564
35	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'20.157	10.574
36	66	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'20.252	10.669
37	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas Tom Gamble	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'20.427	10.844
38	79	Maximilian Buhk Mikael Grenier Maximillian Goetz	GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'20.578	10.995
39	27	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin Ian James	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'20.783	11.200
40	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Ulysse De	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'20.910	11.327
41	32	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'21.173	11.590
42	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Nicholas Boulle	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'21.676	12.093
43	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3
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