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.
