In the late afternoon, the two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06es finished with the best times in Practice 2 here at Road Atlanta.
Heading into night practice (Practice 3) in just under three hours, it’s Jordan Taylor who set the fastest time of the 85-minute session in the black and red #40 WTRAndretti Acura.
Taylor led with a 1:11.081 with about 15 minutes left, supplanting the black and blue #10 WTRAndretti Acura of Filipe Albuquerque who set a 1:11.469 just moments before.
It was an Acura 1-2 until minutes before the chequered flag, when Jack Aitken popped up into second aboard the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R by turning in a 1:11.159 in the closing minutes.
Moments later, Nick Tandy also posted his best lap in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, setting a 1:11.366.
Albuquerque’s best time was good enough for fourth, ahead of the #24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Philipp Eng in fifth place, and the pink #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Renger van der Zande in sixth.
Matt Campbell was ninth-quickest in the championship-leading #7 Penske Porsche, moments after he slid off course in the chicane at turn ten.
The #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 was 1.4 seconds off the top spot in tenth, its best lap was set by Andrea Caldarelli.
Mikkel Jensen turned in the fastest LMP2 time aboard the #11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07, at 1:13.373.
That took Connor Zilisch off the top spot in the #18 Era Motorsport ORECA, by just one millisecond. Midway through Practice 2, and after Zilisch set his best lap, Ryan Dalziel lost his left-rear wheel under braking going into the turn ten complex, and limped back to the pits.
This resulted in the only red flag of the session, to retrieve the stranded wheel out of the gravel trap.
Felipe Fraga backed up his best time in Practice 1 with third-fastest in Practice 2 in the #74 Riley car.
The top three in GTD Pro were separated by just 0.046 seconds, led by the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Daniel Serra who set a 1:18.722 to lead his class.
Jack Hawksworth was just 0.015s back in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, and championship contender Ross Gunn was third in the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Antonio Garcia was fourth-fastest in the #4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
In GTD, the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Parker Thompson led the way with a 1:18.916. Thompson was just under a tenth quicker than the championship-leading #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Philip Ellis in second.
Third in GTD was the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Robby Foley, number two in points.
There were a couple of minor incidents throughout the classes – off-track excursions for the likes of Jakub Śmiechowski and Sarah Bovy, and a blown left-rear tyre on the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3.
Images © Jack Webster / Dailysportscar.com
