The blue and white #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 remains the fastest car through two practice sessions at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
With Qualifying on the horizon this afternoon, Tom Blomqvist set the fastest time in Practice 2 for the #60 Acura. He was the first GTP driver to set a time under one minute, 16 seconds, recording a 1:15.714s.
Blomqvist took the top time from Ricky Taylor, who set a 1:16.297s in the blue #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R before being usurped by Blomqvist.
Acura MSR’s #93 ARX-06 was third-fastest in the hands of Nick Yelloly with a 1:16.352s.
In a strong fourth was the #63 Lamborghini Squadra Corse SC63, and who but Romain Grosjean set the time of 1:16.481s, putting him and the Riley-run SC63 ahead of both BMWs, both factory Porsche Penskes, and two of the three Cadillacs.
Rounding out the top five was the #24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, who left it until late to show his pace.
GTP Championship leader Matt Campbell was sixth-fastest in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, but late in the session with 20 minutes to go, Campbell was tagged from behind by the #8 Tower Motorsports ORECA LMP2 of Sébastien Bourdais. That damaged the right-rear of the Porsche and sent carbon fiber debris spilling out onto the track, which brought out a red flag.
As a consequence, Bourdais’ co-driver John Farano will lose his fastest lap in Qualifying this afternoon, as Bourdais had caused the incident which brought out the red flag.
AF Corse’s bright blue #88 ORECA 07-Gibson set the fastest time in LMP2; Nicklas Nielsen grabbed the top time just a little over halfway into the session with a 1:16.989s. He took it from Hunter McElrea in the #11 TDS Racing ORECA, who was second-fastest.
Just behind him, making his IMSA LMP2 debut, was the former Williams F1 Team driver Logan Sargeant in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports car, who has been quickly getting up to speed.
Tom Dillmann was fourth in the #43 Inter Europol Competition car.
Once again, the fastest GT time was set by a GTD class Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO. This time it was by the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin. Casper Stevenson took the #27 car to the top with a 1:23.624s.
His counterpart in GTD PRO was Albert Costa, who was fastest in his class driving the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 with a 1:23.720s.
The rest of the top three in GTD PRO featured Christopher Mies in the #65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3, who was second ahead of the championship-leading #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims.
A pack of quick GTD cars separated Sims from teammate Tommy Milner in the sister #4 Corvette.
Those GTD leaders included Danny Formal, already a winner this weekend, in second aboard the rebuilt #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2. In third was Manny Franco in the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari, and in fourth was the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari of Onofrio Triarsi.
The session ended with a three-car, three-class accident down Hulman Boulevard. The #63 Lamborghini SC63, now being driven by Edoardo Mortara, was going three-wide into turn seven when he collided with the #18 Era Motorsport ORECA LMP2 of Tobias Lütke.
Lütke was then sent careening into the #13 AWA Racing Corvette of Matthew Bell, and both cars went off, with Lutke going into the tyre barrier.
The #63 Lamborghini will lose its quickest lap in Qualifying for causing the incident.
Qualifying for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks starts this afternoon at 3:15 PM ET (local time), airing in over 230 countries on the official IMSA YouTube channel and IMSA.TV. Viewers in the United States can watch the race on Peacock.
Images © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
