Practice report
IMSA Long Beach
IMSA Long Beach: Taylor leads Acura 1-2 opening practice
Ricky Taylor set the fastest time for Acura in the opening free practice session for this weekend’s Long Beach round of the IMSA SportsCar Series.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Apr 14, 2023, 9:00 PM
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Towards the end of the shortened 55-minute session around the fabled city street track located south of Los Angeles, Taylor produced a laptime of 1m11.942s in the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06, eight tenths of a second clear of the sister Meyer Shank Racing car of Tom Blomqvist.
Matt Campbell set the early pace in the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, setting a trio of fastest times as he worked down to 1m14.241s, and was on a faster lap when he pitted. Filipe Albuquerque had been P2 in the WTR Acura with 1m14.555s, but then leapfrogged Campbell to the head of the times with 1m13.024s, over a second clear of the pack.
Taylor then took over from Albuquerque to unleash a 1m11.942s at the end of the session, well ahead of Blomqvist’s 1m12.800s.
Mathieu Jaminet was best of the rest in the #6 Porsche on 1m13.550s, 1.6s off the pace but a tenth clear of Campbell’s 1m13.660s.
Augusto Farfus was fastest of the BMW M Hybrid V8s, with Pipo Derani (Action Express) the quickest Cadillac V-Series.R driver. The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Caddy and #25 BMW didn’t set representative times and were over 3s off the pace.
Aston Martin sets GTD pace
With no LMP2 or P3 cars in action, GTD is the sole secondary class at Long Beach. Alex Riberas set the fastest time in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin at 1m19.303s, 0.071s clear of Jack Hawksworth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F.
Alec Udell was third quickest in the Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3-R – the fastest of the non-GTD Pro entries – on 1m19.996s, ahead of the Corvette of Antonio Garcia.
The second session takes place at 12:45 local time, ahead of qualifying at 17:10.
Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Time Gap 1 10 Ricky Taylor
Filipe Albuquerque GTP Acura ARX-06 1'11.942 2 60
Tom Blomqvist
Colin Braun GTP Acura ARX-06 1'12.800 0.858 3 6
Nick Tandy
Mathieu Jaminet GTP Porsche 963 1'13.550 1.608 4 7
Matt Campbell
Felipe Nasr GTP Porsche 963 1'13.660 1.718 5 24
Philipp Eng
Augusto Farfus GTP BMW M Hybrid V8 1'13.667 1.725 6 31
Pipo Derani
Alexander Sims GTP Cadillac V-Series.R 1'13.788 1.846 7 1
Sébastien Bourdais
Renger van der Zande GTP Cadillac V-Series.R 1'15.150 3.208 8 25
Connor de Phillippi
Nick Yelloly GTP BMW M Hybrid V8 1'15.884 3.942 9 23
Ross Gunn
Alex Riberas GTD PRO Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'19.303 7.361 10 14
Jack Hawksworth
Ben Barnicoat GTD PRO Lexus RC F GT3 1'19.374 7.432 11 92
Alec Udell
Jeroen Bleekemolen GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 1'19.488 7.546 12 3
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor GTD PRO Corvette C8.R GTD 1'19.660 7.718 13 78
Mikhail Goikhberg
Loris Spinelli GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 1'19.689 7.747 14 1
Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow GTD BMW M4 GT3 1'19.697 7.755 15 77
Alan Brynjolfsson
Trent Hindman GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 1'19.748 7.806 16 93
Ashton Harrison
Mario Farnbacher GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'19.754 7.812 17 80 PJ Hyett
Seb Priaulx GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 1'19.807 7.865 18 9 Klaus Bachler
Patrick Pilet GTD PRO Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 1'19.865 7.923 19 57
Russell Ward
Philip Ellis GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 1'19.897 7.955 20 27
Roman De Angelis
Marco Sorensen GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'19.972 8.030 21 12
Frankie Montecalvo
Aaron Telitz GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'19.979 8.037 22 79
Daniel Juncadella
Jules Gounon GTD PRO Mercedes AMG GT3 1'19.984 8.042 23 32
Mike Skeen
Mikael Grenier GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 1'20.028 8.086 24 70
Brendan Iribe
Frederik Schandorff GTD McLaren 720S GT3 EVO 1'20.055 8.113 25 97
Bill Auberlen
Chandler Hull GTD BMW M4 GT3 1'20.077 8.135 26 66 Sheena Monk
Katherine Legge GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'20.181 8.239 27 91 Alan Metni
Kay van Berlo GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 1'20.220 8.278 28 96
Patrick Gallagher
Robby Foley GTD BMW M4 GT3 1'20.354 8.412 View full results
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