IMSA: Blomqvist Fastest In Long Beach Practice 2

Tom Blomqvist was the fastest man in the final Free Practice session for IMSA’s annual visit to the streets of Long Beach, California, before Qualifying begins later in the afternoon.

This time, the 28 cars across GTP, GTD Pro, and GTD had 90 minutes of track time (staggered across 1 hour and 45 minutes total) around the demanding street circuit. All were relatively well-behaved, but after 50 minutes, the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Renger van der Zande went off at turn nine, stalled, and brought the session to a halt for a few minutes.

Van der Zande and co-driver Sébastien Bourdais were able to resume their session but observers were noticing that the GTP hybrid prototypes were having a tougher time than expected trying to get their cars to brake without locking up.

The #60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 was leading the session at the time with a best lap of 1’11.036. But with less than 20 minutes remaining, Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Konica Minolta Acura set a 1’10.859, the first car and driver combination to enter the 1m10s range.

Blomqvist got aboard the #60 Acura for the final few minutes and went quicker still, setting a 1’10.608 and then a 1’10.391 to stand on top of the timesheets at the end of final practice. The #60 Acura’s best lap was within a second of the previous DPi course record set last year.

The #10 Acura of Albuquerque completed another Acura 1-2 in second. Nick Yelloly was third-fastest in the #25 BMW M Team RLL V8 Hybrid, followed by Alexander Sims in the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac. The fastest Porsche 963 was the #6 of Mathieu Jaminet, in sixth position.

In GTD Pro, the #14 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth set a new course record for the class during the final minutes of Practice 2. The VasserSullivan cars had been quick throughout both Practices. And with a little more than 10 minutes left, Hawksworth put in a best lap of 1’17.876 – and surpassed Jordan Taylor’s course record from last year by almost two-tenths of a second.

Sebring 12 Hours winner Patrick Pilet was second-fastest in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, while the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD was third-fastest in GTD Pro in the hands of Antonio Garcia.

In the ‘Pro-Am’ GTD class, Mario Farnbacher topped the time sheets in the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3, sporting a special livery this weekend as part of a recently-expanded commitment to IMSA. Farnbacher’s best time was a 1’18.516, just a few hundredths away from the class course record.

It was very, very close at the top of the GTD rankings in Practice 2; the much-loved #80 AO Racing Porsche of Seb Priaulx was second, and the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Marco Sørensen was third. The top three cars were separated by just 0.064 seconds at the end!

Not much farther behind, was the #12 VasserSullivan Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo in fourth, and the championship-leading #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO in fifth. Only two-tenths of a second covered first to fifth in ‘GTD Classic’.

Combined Practice Results