Acura Meyer Shank Racing opened its final IMSA race meeting with its two Acura ARX-06es finishing first and second in first practice for the 29th Motul Petit Le Mans.
The #93 and #60 Acuras led GTP during a mostly overcast 90-minute opening practice session at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and their best times were separated by just 0.003 seconds at the end, when the sun finally broke through the haze of the early morning fog.
Nick Yelloly set the #93 Acura’s best time at 1:11.506, surpassing the 1:11.509 set by Tom Blomqvist in the #60 car. Then it was the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Laurens Vanthoor in third place on a 1:11.739, ahead of the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R of GTP championship leader Jack Aitken with a 1:11.768. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac (Ricky Taylor, 1:11.784) rounded out the top five.
The #7 Penske Porsche (Felipe Nasr, 1:11.904) was sixth, as less than nine-tenths of a second covered the top ten cars in GTP.
LMP2 points leaders Inter Europol Competition also got a strong start to their race weekend: Tom Dillmann’s time in the #43 ORECA 07-Gibson, a 1:12.628, was not only six-tenths up on the next fastest car but was quicker than the #25 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8’s best lap of the morning.
The top four in LMP2 also featured Dane Cameron aboard the #99 AO Racing ORECA in second (1:13.233), then the #11 TDS Racing ORECA of Mathias Beche, and the #52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen ORECA of Harry Tincknell.
In GTD Pro, Vasser Sullivan Racing’s final weekend running the Lexus RC F GT3s has started well. Ben Barnicoat laid down a rapid time of 1:19.530 aboard the #14 Lexus, putting him over four-tenths up on the next-fastest car in class.
Neil Verhagen was second-fastest aboard the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO (1:19.982), then in third was the #033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo (James Calado, 1:20.058s, followed by the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Harry King, 1:20.135) and #64 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo (Ben Barker, 1:20.152). Championship co-leader Tommy Milner was sixth-fastest in the #4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R.
And in GTD, it was young Porsche Motorsport North America-backed star Tom Sargent setting the fastest time in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche, at 1:19.632.
Not much separated the top runners in GTD: Felipe Fraga in the #16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford was second, Antonio Fuoco was third in the #21 AF Corse USA Ferrari, Albert Costa was fourth in the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari, and Aaron Telitz was a close fifth in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus – all within a tenth and a half of a second of each other. Meanwhile, Winward Racing’s #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO was only 12th-fastest.
All 90 minutes were run with no red flags or major incidents; a coming together between the #34 Conquest Ferrari and #73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA was adjudicated with the Ferrari receiving a drive-through penalty, but apart from that and a couple of minor off-track excursions for LMP2 and GTD runners, everyone was able to complete a trouble-free practice.
Practice 2 from Road Atlanta starts this afternoon at 3:20 PM ET (local time).
Images © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
