In the second practice session Thursday at Circuit of the Americas, Wayne Taylor Racing continued to assert their dominance over the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Jordan Taylor, driving the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R. was fastest with a lap of 116.595 seconds (104.979 mph). This lap was more than 1.1 seconds quicker than Action Express Racing’s Christian Fittipaldi.
JDC/Miller MotorSports’ Stephen Simpson was third quickest in the sole ORECA 07-Gibson in the field. Action Express Racing’s Dane Cameron was fourth quickest, followed by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ Marco Bonanomi.
In Prototype Challenge, Performance Tech Motorsports was still on top, but the margin was much closer. James French was fastest in class with a lap of 121.751 seconds (100.553 mph). This lap was a little over three seconds faster than Stefan Wilson in the BAR1 Motorsports No. 26.
For the sake of explanation, this is not just one quick lap for the No. 38 that is seconds faster than the No. 26. It is the majority of their laps. IMSA makes very detailed results available to the general public at results.imsa.com via Alkamel Systems (the same company also does scoring for the FIA World Endurance Championship and the European Le Mans Series). The options available for viewing include time cards, which list every lap that each car runs. 14 of Performance Tech’s 24 laps on track were faster than the best lap Wilson turned in. Seven more were either pit-in or pit-out laps.
In GT Le Mans, BMW Team RLL really hasn’t had that much to be proud of this season. They’ve been outclassed for much of the year.
The second session on Thursday was a time to be proud as the M6 GTLM’s went one-two on the speed charts. Alexander Sims was fastest in the No. 25 with a lap of 123.703 seconds (98.947 mph), the fastest GT Le Mans lap of the day. Sims was four-tenths of a second faster than teammate John Edwards. Porsche GT Team’s Laurens Vanthoor was third quickest.
Risi Competizione’s Giancarlo Fisichella was fourth quickest in class, while Dirk Werner was fifth in the second Porsche.
There were two issues of note in the class. With 12 minutes remaining in practice, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dirk Müller stalled the No. 66 Ford GT on the hill leading up to turn 1. The veteran racer coasted the car down the hill into the pit exit.
Also, after the end of the session, the Corvette Racing No. 3 of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen had a small fire in the car that was quickly extinguished. The team has not commented on the extent of the damage.
In GT Daytona, SunEnergy1 Racing’s Tristan Vautier was once again fastest, backing up the pace that he showed to win the GT Daytona pole at Sebring back in March. Vautier’s lap of 127.115 seconds (96.291 mph) was four-tenths of a second faster than Lone Star Racing’s Mike Skeen in the No. 80 Mercedes. Turner Motorsport’s Jens Klingmann was third quickest, another couple of tenths back.
Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Andy Lally was fourth quickest in the best of the Acuras. Finally, IMSA debutante Mathieu Jaminet in the Alegra Motorsports Porsche was fifth quickest.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams have one more practice session on Friday morning at 8:55 a.m. local time. Qualifying is due to start just after Noon local.
Results of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Challenge COTA Practice No. 2
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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