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IMSA: Mazda tops Petit Le Mans second practice; Corvette heads GTLM

Posted by AR1 staff

Harry Tincknell chose the perfect time to clock the fastest lap – in the final seconds of the session.

Tincknell recorded a lap of 1 minute, 9.356 seconds (131.841 mph) Thursday during the second of three practices for Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

His lap in the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda RT24-P knocked Felipe Nasr’s No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPI-V.R (1:09.400) from the top spot in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class during the hour-long IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship session around the 12-turn, 2.54-mile circuit.

Tincknell and teammates Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito are bidding farewell to Mazda’s DPi program, which will cease operation after the race.

“We were pretty strong overall in that session,” Tincknell said. “We had a little issue out there in the first session. I hope to have got all the bad luck out of the way and just keep moving forward.”

Nasr will join teammates Pipo Derani and Mike Conway in their DPi championship battle against the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 co-driven by Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Alexander Rossi in the season finale. The No. 10 Acura leads the No. 31 Cadillac by 19 points, setting up the likelihood that whichever car finishes better in the race wins the DPi championship.

GTLM

Nick Tandy put the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R atop the time charts in the GTLM class with a  1m16.938s lap.

Tandy edged out the No. 97 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre by 0.082 seconds.

LMP2 and LMP3

Gabriel Aubry, in the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA LMP2 07 he shares with John Farano and James French, topped the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) chart through the first two practices with a lap of 1:11.718 in the opening session. But the No. 8 missed most of the second practice after colliding with the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche GT Daytona (GTD) entry. The final practice was scheduled under the lights Thursday evening.

In Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3), Colin Braun put the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier JS P320 on top with a 1:15.916 lap in the opening practice. The No. 54 trails the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier by 50 points ahead of qualifying on Friday and Saturday’s 10-hour race.

GTD

n the GT Daytona (GTD) class, the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 rebounded from recent disappointment by setting the fast lap in each of the first two practices. All-time IMSA wins leader Bill Auberlen paced the first practice at 1:19.197 (115.458 mph), with Robby Foley setting the fast lap of Practice 2 at 1:19.593 (114.884 mph). Aidan Read will share the car in the race.

The No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, with Jan Heylen at the wheel, sustained heavy damage in its encounter with the No. 8 Tower Motorsport LMP2 early in the second practice. Heylen went off track where the cars cross the blind brow under the Fox Factory bridge near Turn 11. The No. 16 Porsche speared into a concrete wall along the outer pit lane used for support races. Heylen was uninjured.

A spokesperson for Wright Motorsports said the team was still determining if the car could be repaired prior to Friday’s qualifying session. She added that Tower Motorsports manager Peter Barron immediately apologized for the incident and offered to assist the Wright team’s repair efforts.

Practice 2 Results

Pos

PiC

No.

Class

Drivers

Team

Car

Time

Behind

Gap/Speed

1

1

55

DPi

O. Jarvis / H. Tincknell

J. Bomarito

Mazda Motorsports

Mazda DPi

1:09.356

-0.000s

– 131.841

2

2

31

DPi

F. Nasr / M. Conway / P. Derani

Whelen Engineering Racing

Cadillac DPi

1:09.400

+0.044

+0.044 131.757

3

3

5

DPi

T. Vautier / L. Duval

S. Bourdais

Mustang Sampling / JDC-Miller MotorSports

Cadillac DPi

1:09.571

+0.215

+0.171 131.433

4

4

01

DPi

R. van der Zande

K. Magnussen / S. Dixon

Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing

Cadillac DPi

1:09.687

+0.331

+0.116 131.214

5

5

60

DPi

J. Montoya / H. Castroneves

D. Cameron

Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian

Acura DPi

1:09.774

+0.418

+0.087 131.051

6

6

10

DPi

R. Taylor / F. Albuquerque

A. Rossi

Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05

Acura DPi

1:10.096

+0.740

+0.322 130.449

7

7

48

DPi

J. Johnson / K. Kobayashi

S. Pagenaud

Ally Cadillac Racing

Cadillac DPi

1:10.281

+0.925

+0.185 130.105

8

1

52

LMP2

B. Keating / M. Jensen

S. Huffaker

PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports

ORECA LMP2 07

1:11.930

+2.574

+1.649 127.123

9

2

22

LMP2

J. McGuire / W. Boyd / G. Smith

United Autosports

ORECA LMP2 07

1:12.612

+3.256

+0.682 125.929

10

3

18

LMP2

D. Merriman / K. Tilley

R. Dalziel

Era Motorsport

ORECA LMP2 07

1:12.664

+3.308

+0.052 125.839

11

4

11

LMP2

  1. Thomas / T. Nunez

  2. Merrill

WIN Autosport

ORECA LMP2 07

1:13.545

+4.189

+0.881 124.331

12

5

8

LMP2

J. Farano / G. Aubry / J. French

Tower Motorsport

ORECA LMP2 07

1:15.751

+6.395

+2.206 120.710

13

1

91

LMP3

J. Cox / D. Murry

J. Bleekemolen

Riley Motorsports

Ligier JS P320

1:16.413

+7.057

+0.662 119.665

14

2

74

LMP3

G. Robinson / F. Fraga

S. Andrews

Riley Motorsports

Ligier JS P320

1:16.434

+7.078

+0.021 119.632

15

3

83

LMP3

M. Bell / N. Rao / J. Skelton

WIN Autosport

Duqueine D08

1:16.824

+7.468

+0.390 119.025

16

1

4

GTLM

T. Milner / N. Tandy / A. Sims

Corvette Racing

Chevrolet Corvette C8.R

1:16.938

+7.582

+0.114 118.848

17

2

97

GTLM

K. Estre / M. Christensen

F. Makowiecki

WeatherTech Racing

Porsche 911 RSR – 19

1:17.020

+7.664

+0.082 118.722

18

4

2

LMP3

N. Kruetten / T. Gamble

A. Meyrick

United Autosports USA

Ligier JS P320

1:17.095

+7.739

+0.075 118.606

19

3

79

GTLM

C. MacNeil / M. Jaminet

M. Campbell

WeatherTech Racing

Porsche 911 RSR – 19

1:17.221

+7.865

+0.126 118.413

20

4

3

GTLM

A. Garcia / J. Taylor

N. Catsburg

Corvette Racing

Chevrolet Corvette C8.R

1:17.359

+8.003

+0.138 118.201

21

5

24

GTLM

J. Edwards / J. Krohn

A. Farfus

BMW Team RLL

BMW M8 GTE

1:17.519

+8.163

+0.160 117.957

22

5

38

LMP3

D. Goldburg / R. Lindh

M. Jakobsen

Performance Tech Motorsports

Ligier JS P320

1:17.643

+8.287

+0.124 117.769

23

6

25

GTLM

C. De Phillippi / P. Eng

B. Spengler

BMW Team RLL

BMW M8 GTE

1:17.830

+8.474

+0.187 117.486

24

6

36

LMP3

J. Andretti / J. Burdon

O. Askew

Andretti Autosport

Ligier JS P320

1:18.062

+8.706

+0.232 117.137

25

7

40

LMP3

T. Archer / J. Vance

M. Hanratty

FastMD Racing

Duqueine D08

1:18.548

+9.192

+0.486 116.412

26

8

30

LMP3

A. Balogh / G. Grist / S. Pigot

Jr III Racing

Ligier JS P320

1:18.775

+9.419

+0.227 116.077

27

9

54

LMP3

J. Bennett / G. Kurtz / C. Braun

Core Autosport

Ligier JS P320

1:19.287

+9.931

+0.512 115.327

28

1

96

GTD

B. Auberlen / R. Foley / A. Read

Turner Motorsport

BMW M6 GT3

1:19.593

+10.237

+0.306 114.884

29

2

14

GTD

K. Kirkwood / A. Telitz

J. Hawksworth

VASSER SULLIVAN

Lexus RC F GT3

1:19.644

+10.288

+0.051 114.810

30

3

12

GTD

R. Megennis / F. Montecalvo

Z. Veach

VASSER SULLIVAN

Lexus RC F GT3

1:19.747

+10.391

+0.103 114.662

31

10

7

LMP3

  1. Pflucker / M. Kvamme

  2. Rzadzinski

Forty7 Motorsports

Duqueine D08

1:19.996

+10.640

+0.249 114.305

32

4

9

GTD

Z. Robichon / L. Vanthoor

L. Kern

Pfaff Motorsports

Porsche 911 GT3R

1:20.003

+10.647

+0.007 114.295

33

5

1

GTD

B. Sellers / M. Snow / C. Lewis

Paul Miller Racing

Lamborghini Huracan GT3

1:20.052

+10.696

+0.049 114.225

34

6

57

GTD

R. Ward / P. Ellis / M. Engel

Winward Racing

Mercedes-AMG GT3

1:20.360

+11.004

+0.308 113.787

35

7

19

GTD

M. Beretta / M. Goikhberg

F. Perera

GRT Grasser Racing Team

Lamborghini Huracan GT3

1:20.578

+11.222

+0.218 113.479

36

8

23

GTD

R. De Angelis / R. Gunn

I. James

Heart Of Racing Team

Aston Martin Vantage GT3

1:20.808

+11.452

+0.230 113.156

37

9

70

GTD

F. Schandorff / B. Iribe

B. Barnicoat

Inception Racing

McLaren 720S GT3

1:20.911

+11.555

+0.103 113.012

38

10

44

GTD

J. Potter / A. Lally / S. Pumpelly

Magnus with Archangel

Acura NSX GT3

1:20.928

+11.572

+0.017 112.989

39

11

42

GTD

D. Yount / J. Conwright

B. Hites

NTE Sport

Audi R8 LMS GT3

1:20.965

+11.609

+0.037 112.937

40

12

32

GTD

M. Skeen / G. Cosmo

S. McAleer

Gilbert/Korthoff Motorsports

Mercedes-AMG GT3

1:21.151

+11.795

+0.186 112.678

41

13

28

GTD

D. Morad / M. de Quesada

D. Juncadella

Alegra Motorsports

Mercedes-AMG GT3

1:21.343

+11.987

+0.192 112.412

42

14

88

GTD

R. Ferriol / K. Legge / A. Davis

Team Hardpoint

Porsche 911 GT3R

1:22.054

+12.698

+0.711 111.438

43

15

16

GTD

T. Hindman / P. Long

J. Heylen

Wright Motorsports

Porsche 911 GT3R