In second practice from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, outside GTP championship contender Laurin Heinrich paced the field aboard the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, ahead of teammate Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche.
After an early red flag, the #24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 was the car that set the initial high benchmark. Sheldon van der Linde’s lap of 1:10.727 was the fastest time of the day so far, the first under the 1:11s range. Minutes later, Vanthoor in the #6 Penske Porsche surpassed him with a 1:10.683.
But with less than ten minutes left, Heinrich jumped to the top at a 1:10.639, making it a Porsche Penske 1-2 finish in a session which had three red flag interventions.
Daniel Goldburg in the #22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 brought out the first red in the final minutes of a 15-minute partition for Bronze drivers only; Goldburg went off at turn five and hit head-on into the tyre barrier, burying the nose of the car deep. Goldburg was uninjured, but the car’s front-end damage was too great for the #22 to continue.
Thomas Preining in the blood orange #911 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R came to a stop at the bottom of the Esses to bring out the second red flag with around 30 minutes left, and then with six minutes to go, Chris Cumming in the #73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA shot off into turn six and was stranded in the gravel.
That effectively ended the session as the remaining two minutes and 30 seconds of run time allowed for no other improvements.
Further down the GTP running order, van der Linde was third in the #24 BMW, ahead of the sister #25 BMW of Marco Wittmann (1:11.052) in fourth. Only the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie (Ross Gunn, 1:11.069) broke up another batch of “formation flying” down the running order with the two Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06es in sixth and seventh, followed by all three Cadillac V-Series.Rs; the #31 Cadillac Whelen car was only ninth.
The championship-leading #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson led LMP2 for the second consecutive session. Its best time wasn’t set by Tom Dillmann, rather, by Inter Europol’s rapid Bronze Jeremy Clarke – who turned in a 1:12.732 early on to pace the class.
Clarke wasn’t alone as PJ Hyett set the second-fastest time in his #99 AO Racing ORECA at 1:12.815, and both were ahead of the fastest Pro driver – that being Alex Quinn in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, who was third-fastest with a 1:13.032.
The #11 TDS Racing ORECA (Mathias Beche) was fourth-fastest, ahead of the #22 United Autosports car in fifth.
Ferrari specialists Risi Competizione led GTD Pro thanks to GT ace Daniel Serra, who turned in the #62 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo’s best lap at 1:19.271. That was enough to put him ahead of the #64 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo by less than a tenth; Ben Barker set the Ford’s best lap of 1:19.334.
Championship-leading driver Nicky Catsburg was third in the #4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, ahead of Neil Verhagen – number two in points, in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. The #65 Ford (Christopher Mies) was fifth-fastest in class.
But the fastest GT time was set in GTD, a 1:18.930 from the #12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 – driven by Aaron Telitz. The Lexus was two-tenths up on the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari (Lorenzo Patrese, 1:19.122) in second, then the #21 AF Corse USA Ferrari (Antonio Fuoco) in third, the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo (Zacharie Robichon), and the #16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford (Felipe Fraga) in third through fifth.
Winward Racing, meanwhile, faced significant strife in Practice 2. The #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO was limited to just nine laps as the team chased a mechanical issue, not what the team needed as it prepares for a tight battle for the GTD crown on Saturday.
Night practice at Road Atlanta starts at 7:30 PM ET.
Images © Jack Webster / Dailysportscar.com
