Bright and early on Friday morning, Acura Team Penske picked right up where they left off on Thursday. Ricky Taylor turned in a lap of 107.076 seconds (125.742 mph), the fastest lap of the whole weekend, in order to top the charts in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Practice No. 4. It is the third out of four sessions this weekend that the No. 7 Acura ARX-05 has led the way.
Taylor’s best lap was three-sevenths of a second faster than Pipo Derani in Tequila Patron ESM’s No. 22 Nissan. Performance Tech Motorsports’ Patricio O’Ward was third quickest, followed by Mazda Team Joest’s Jonathan Bomarito. Olivier Pla was fifth quickest in the No. 2 Nissan. Felipe Nasr was the fastest of the Cadillac drivers in sixth.
In GT Le Mans, Connor De Phillippi put the BMW M8 GTE solidly up there as a potential threat for pole. De Phillippi set a time of 116.566 seconds (115.505 mph) to lead the factory GTE contingent. De Phillippi’s lap was nearly a quarter of a second faster than teammate Jesse Krohn.
Porsche GT Team’s Laurens Vanthoor was third quickest, followed by his teammate Nick Tandy. Sébastien Bourdais, fresh from an INDYCAR test Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway, was fifth quickest in the No. 66 Ford.
In GT Daytona, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport’s Christopher Mies was fastest with a lap of 119.130 seconds (113.019 mph), the fastest GTD lap of the week so far. His time was three-sevenths of a second faster than the Ferrari of Spirit of Race’s Daniel Serra. Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Trent Hindman was third fastest in the No. 86 Acura, followed by Patrick Long in the Wright Motorsports Porsche. Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 64 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari was fifth quickest.
The only car that did not set a time in the session was the No. 93 Acura for Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian. The team is still thrashing to repair the car after Justin Marks’ crash on Thursday in Practice No. 2.
There were no red flags during the practice session. However, the start of the session was delayed slightly due to fog.
Qualifying is next up for the 43 teams assembled in Sebring. The session starts at 12:55 p.m. and will be livestreamed at both IMSA.com and FansChoice.tv.
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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