- In IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Practice No. 1 Thursday, Chip Ganassi Racing's Sebastien Bourdais was fastest with a lap at 128.765 mph in his Cadillac VSeries.R. The lap was .476 seconds faster than Action Express Racing's Jack Aitken.
Porsche Penske Motorsport's Mathieu Jaminet was third, then BMW M Team RLL's Philipp Eng and JDC-Miller MotorSports' Tijmen van der Helm.
LMP2 saw Riley Motorsports' Felipe Fraga go fastest with a lap at 125.565 mph. His lap was .249 seconds faster than United Autosports' Ben Hanley. Teammate Paul di Resta was third, then Tower Motorsports' Frederik Vesti and TDS
Racing's Hunter McAlrea.
In the GT ranks, Iron Lynx's Jordan Pepper was fastest in GTD Pro with a lap at 115.677 mph, 22nd overall. Pepper's lap was .059 seconds faster than The Heart of Racing's Aston Martin No. 23 for Ross Gunn. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports' Alexander Sims was third, then teammate Earl Bamber. Vasser Sullivan's Kyle Kirkwood was fifth in
his Lexus.
GT was topped by AF Corse's Miguel Molina with a lap at 115.560 mph, fourth fastest of the GT drivers. Molina's lap was .236 seconds faster than Forte Racing's Loris Spinelli. Magnus Racing's Spencer Pumpelly was third, then Cetilar Racing's Antonio Fuoco in his Ferrari. MDK Motorsports' Klaus Bachler was fifth.
Practice No. 2 saw Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global's Jordan Taylor top the timesheet with a lap at 128.642 mph in his Acura ARX-06. Taylor's lap was .078 seconds faster than Aitken. Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche was third, then Filipe Albuquerque in the second WTRAndretti Acura. Eng was fifth.
TDS Racing's Mikkel Jensen was fastest in LMP2 with a lap at 124.623 mph in 12th overall. Jensen was one-thousandth of a second faster than Era Motorsport's Connor Zilisch. Fraga was third, then AO Racing's Paul-Loup Chatin. Nico Pino was fifth.
Risi Competizione's Daniel Serra was fastest of the GT drivers in 22nd overall with a
lap at 116.156 mph to top GTD Pro. His lap was .015 seconds faster than Vasser Sullivan's Jack Hawksworth. Gunn was third, then Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette. AO Racing's Laurin Heinrich was fifth.
In GTD, Vasser Sullivan's Parker Thompson was fastest with a lap at 115.870 mph, fifth of all GT drivers. Thompson was .076 seconds faster than Winward Racing's Philip
Ellis. Turner Motorsport's Robby Foley was third, then Simon Mann in the AF Corse and Korthoff/Preston Motorsports' Mike Skeen.
While there were some spins during the session, the only red flag came out when Era Motorsport's Ryan Dalziel lost his left rear wheel. Crews had to retrieve the wheel from the gravel trap at the chicane.
Practice No. 3, the night practice session, saw Chip Ganassi Racing's Renger van der Zande top the chart with a lap at 127.663 mph. The lap was .362 seconds faster than Lamborghini Iron Lynx's Andrea Caldarelli. Porsche Penske Motorsport's Felipe Nasr was third fastest, then Augusto Farfus and Jaminet.
Hanley was fastest in LMP2 with a lap at 124.956 mph in his Wynn's-sponsored ORECA 07-Gibson. He was .104 seconds faster than Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports' Tom Dillmann. Jensen was third fastest, then Fraga and High Class Racing's Scott Huffaker.
In the GT ranks, Foley put the GTD class BMW
from Turner Motorsport on top with a lap at 115.462 mph. He was .235 seconds faster than the Porsche of Bachler, then Mann and Lone Star Racing's Scott Andrews. Vasser Sullivan's Aaron Telitz was fifth.
GTD Pro was led by Heinrich with a lap at 115.348 mph, .078 seconds slower than Foley. Heinrich ended up .044 seconds faster than Paul Miller Racing's Madison Snow.
Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports' Nicky Catsburg was third, then Vasser Sullivan's Ben Barnicoat and Pfaff Motorsports' Marvin Kirchhoefer.
The night session saw a collision between Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports' Daniel Juncadella and Forte Racing's Spinelli in turn 4 that damaged the right rear of the No. 3 Corvette. Both cars spent much
of the remainder of the session getting repairs.
Later on, Romain Grosjean spun the Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 in turn 2 to cause another stoppage. Unlike the issues for the GT cars, this was relatively minor.
- At Oswego Speedway Thursday evening,
Stewart Friesen won the pole for Saturday night's Super DIRTcar Series Billy Whitaker Cars 200 with a lap at 90.983 mph around the half-mile dirt track, beating out 86 other drivers for a $1,000 bonus.
Photo is courtesy of our own Phil Allaway.
