BMW’s Connor De Phillippi topped second practice session for this weekend’s IMSA SportsCar Championship round at Road America.
De Phillippi beat the Acuras of Filipe Albuquerque and Jordan Taylor in the 90-minute session ahead of Sunday’s 2h40m race around the four-mile track that’s the self-proclaimed ‘America’s National Park of Speed’ and features a 47-car entry.
The premier class GTP hybrids are back in action after taking a break at Mosport last month.
Mathieu Jaminet set the benchmark at 1m52.559s in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 before the Cadillacs took over at the top, Sebastien Bourdais outpacing Jack Aitken for Chip Ganassi Racing and Action Express respectively.
BMW joined the chat after 10 minutes, with Jesse Krohn’s No. 25 M Hybrid V8 pipping team-mate Connor De Phillippi in the No. 24 sister car for P1, before it was snatched by Jordan Taylor’s No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06.
De Phillippi wrested back the advantage with 1m50.335s, which would prove the fastest time of the session, pipping Krohn by seven tenths before they dived into the pits holding a BMW 1-2. Taylor then suffered a clash at Turn 5 with Daniel Goldburg in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca that set the pace in LMP2 yesterday.
The No.24 car missed the second half of the session as it required a new transmission installing, after suffering a grassy off at the Kink.
Taylor split the two BMWs at the top of the times with 25 minutes of the session remaining, his 1m50.620s getting within 0.285s of De Phillippi. Then it was Albuquerque’s No.10 WTR Acura that grabbed P2, just 0.009s off the quickest BMW.
Both BMW and Acura have tested recently at Road America, while in Balance of Performance news, the BMW has gained 1 kW of power and the Acura ARX-06 is 5kg heavier.
Behind Krohn, Gianmaria Bruni was the fastest Porsche in Proton’s customer No. 5 963, ahead of the No. 7 Penske-run version.
A red flag was required just after the halfway point to retrieve the No. 34 Conquest Ferrari GTD car of Albert Costa from Turn 8, which broke a driveshaft.
The second red flag was for Ben Keating in United Autosports’ No. 2 LMP2 Oreca, which suffered a big crash in the middle of the Carousel.
#2 United Autosports ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Ben Keating, Ben Hanley
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
United Autosports quickest in LMP2
Overall Mosport winner Tom Dillmann set a cracking early pace for Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen, lapping in 1m53.532s.
But Ben Hanley in United Autosports’ No. 2 car pipped Dillmann for P1 by 0.053s with 1m53.479s. However, when Keating was in the car later, he crashed at the Carousel and smashed into a concrete wall – wrecking the front and rear of the car as it span around.
That leaves the team with a huge rebuild before qualifying later.
Paul di Resta was third quickest in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca.
#14 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3: Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Lexus fastest in GTD Pro
In GTD, Jack Hawksworth set the pace almost from the start in his No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F at 2m03.475s.
Alexander Sims jumped up to second place in the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R just before the halfway point, 0.14s in arrears of Hawksworth.
The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Madison Snow was third fastest, ahead of the GTD pro-am class leading Lamborghini of Misha Goikhberg and Loris Spinelli.