#01: Cadillac Racing, Cadillac VSeries.R, GTP: Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon – Credit: LAT Images / Copyright: Richard Dole
Sebastien Bourdais topped the timesheets again in the second of three practice sessions at Road Atlanta for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Petit Le Mans endurance event.
Bourdais’ time of 1:09.671s in the #1 Cadillac V-Series.R machine bettered the rest of the field by 0.432s, with the next six entries separated by just over half a second.
This session was the longest of the three practice sessions taking place this weekend at 105 minutes in length, with the first quarter of an hour reserved exclusively for the LMP2, LMP3 and GTD entrants and the final quarter of an hour allowing the GTP and GTD Pro runners to have exclusive use of the Road Atlanta circuit.
In between those bookending periods, the 52-strong field had the opportunity to get laps under their belt and get to grips with traffic management, a vital preparation ahead of Saturday’s race.
The final quarter of an hour allowed Bourdais and his fellow GTP competitors to push the pace unencumbered by traffic, and the Frenchman laid down the gauntlet with the only sub-70-second time.
Second in GTP and overall went to Augusto Farfus in the #24 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, with a time of 1:10.103s, just over four tenths back from Bourdais.
Felipe Nasr went third in the #7 Penske-run factory Porsche 963 effort, thanks to a time of 1:10.138s, 0.35s slower than Farfus’ effort.
Next up were the two Acuras, with the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing effort heading the #60 Meyer Shank ARX-06 thanks to Louis Deletraz’s time of 1:10.160s, 0.053s faster than Tom Blomqvist’s effort for MSR.
Connor De Phillippi went sixth fastest in the #25 RLL BMW with a time of 1:10.283s, with the series leading #31 Cadillac of Pipo Derani taking seventh thanks to a time of 1:10.334s.
Eighth went to the #6 Penske Porsche crew, with Nick Tandy setting the fastest time of his crew, lapping the 2.54 miles of Road Atlanta in 1:10.818s.
The top-10 was completed by the final two GTP entires, the two customer Porsches, with Proton Competition getting the better of JDC Miller Motorsports.
Neel Jani’s time of 1:11.067s in the #59 Porsche bettered Mike Rockenfeller’s time of 1:11.675s in the #5 bright yellow 963.
In LMP2, the championship leading #11 TDS crew led the way, courtesy of Scott Huffaker’s time of 1:13.357s in his Oreca 07 machine.
Second in LMP2 went to the #52 PR1 crew, who sit just 20 points adrift of TDS in the championship standings and Paul-Loup Chatin posted a time 0.2s shy of Huffaker’s effort.
In third place, in LMP2, behind TDS and PR1 was the #4 Crowdstrike team, after Nolan Siegel set a time of 1:13.768s.
In the final of the three prototype classes – LMP3 – the top three places were occupied by Ligier JS P320 entries, with JR III Racing going fastest courtesy of Garett Grist setting a time of 1:16.749s in the #30 machine.
The second of the three Ligiers and the LMP3 class was the #74 Riley entry piloted by Felipe Fraga with a time of 1:16.952s, ahead of Glenn van Berlo in the #36 Andretti Autosports entry, who posted a time of 1:17.109s around the fast and flowing Road Atlanta circuit.
In GTD Pro, Corvette Racing posted the fastest time, as Antonio Garcia laid down a marker of 1:19.543s in the #3 Corvette C8.R GTD machine.
Daniel Serra posted the second fastest GTD Pro time of 1:19.725s in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, ahead of Jack Hawksworth – whose #14 Vasser Sullivan crew simply need to make the start on Saturday in the Lexus RC F GT3 to win the GTD Pro title – who set a time of 1:19.740s.
Paul Miller Racing – who have already wrapped up GTD title honours this year – led the way in their class in second practice thanks to Madison Snow lapping Road Atlanta in a time of 1:19.731s aboard the #1 BMW M4 GT3.
Vasser Sullivan’s #12 Lexus RC F GT3 went second in GTD, with Aaron Telitz’s time of 1:19.800s, ahead of the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 entry of Mike Skeen, who set a time of 1:19.947s.
Next up at Road Atlanta is the third and final practice session, set to run under the cover of night at 19:30 local time (00:30 BST).
Keyword: Bourdais on top again in second IMSA Petit Le Mans practice