The #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani, and Eric Curran led two of Thursday’s three Free Practice sessions for the 22nd running of Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, as they smashed the previous DPi class course record around the 4.088 kilometre road course on the first day of running.
17 minutes into Practice 1, Ricky Taylor in the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi set the first sub-70 second lap around Michelin Raceway in a DPi. 25 minutes later, it was Nasr that popped in a fastest lap of 1’09.093, a new record for the category.
Practice 1 was halted by two red flags, both for stranded GTD class cars, first the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth, 6 minutes into the session, when he stopped at Turn 2 with a flat tyre. There was another much longer red flag for the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Marcos Seefried, coming to a stop at Turn 3 and halting the session for thirteen minutes. The session was extended another five minutes to compensate.
Even more drivers found themselves caught out in the afternoon’s Practice 2, with three red flags caused by drivers going off at the tricky Turn 10 A&B chicane: Chris Miller in the #84 JDC-Miller Motorsport Cadillac DPi-V.R, Justin Marks in the champion-elect #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3, and the #77 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P of Tristan Nuñez. Juan Piedrahita also found trouble in the sister #85 JDC-Miller Cadillac.
DPi class championship leader Dane Cameron got to within 0.002 of Nasr’s record and topped Practice 2. Despite the off from Piedrahita, the #85 JDC-Miller Cadillac got to second in Tristan Vautier’s hands, followed by the #5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque, a car which didn’t set a representative lap in Practice 1.
In GT Le Mans, the lap times kept tumbling down gradually with each session. In Practice 1, it was the #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing GT of Richard Westbrook on a 1’16.810, edging out the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of James Calado by less than a tenth, then another tenth back to the #66 Ford of Dirk Müller. Those Le Mans 2016 flashbacks are setting in quite nicely.
Practice 2 had the #62 Risi Ferrari leading, Daniel Serra taking a tenth out of the provisional record set by Westbrook with a 1’16.708.
In GTD Bill Auberlen led Practice 1 with a 1’19.305 in his #96 Liqui-Moly Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3. In Practice 2, it was Felipe Fraga with the fastest GTD lap of the day, a 1’19.275, in the #33 Wynn’s Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Then it was time for IMSA after dark, Night Practice, Practice 3!
Thirty Bronze and Silver-graded drivers did the requisite amount of night driving needed to be licensed to race in Saturday’s main event. And only one red flag came out, when Rene Binder found the gravel in Turn 10 halfway into the session.
Once again, it was the #31 Whelen Cadillac, this time driven by Derani, taking the top spot. The GT Le Mans lap record was reset again thanks to the #66 Ford of Müller, going up to a 1’16.552. Then in GT Daytona, Auberlen had the #96 Liqui-Moly BMW on top again.
Gabriel Aubry swept all three practice sessions in LMP2 for the #52 PR1-Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07, including his best lap, a 1’11.025 set in Practice 2, that was faster than the #50 Juncos Cadillac DPi’s best time in the same session!
Tomorrow brings us to qualifying and the run to pole position, where the records are expected to be reset again with drivers on full attack mode!
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