Mazda Motorsports’ Harry Tincknell was fastest overall in an abbreviated practice session Friday (Aug. 6) held in changeable conditions at Road America. Due to the wet conditions, Tincknell’s lap at 112.298 mph was nearly 20 seconds off of the expected pace had the session been held in the dry.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice Friday (Aug. 6) at Road America was scheduled to begin at 5:10 p.m. local time and last for an hour. That was until thunderstorms descended upon the 4.048-mile road course. A long stopdown due to lightning jumbled up the schedule. As a result, 60 minutes of practice was pushed back 50 minutes and cut to 30 minutes.
Tincknell’s lap was four-tenths of a second faster than Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kevin Magnussen was third, then JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Tristan Vautier. Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Dane Cameron was fifth.
In LMP2, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Mikkel Jensen was fastest with a lap at 108.464 mph, good for sixth overall. Jensen’s lap was more than two seconds faster than Era Motorsport’s Ryan Dalziel. Tower Motorsport by Starworks’ Gabriel Aubry was third.
LMP3 was topped by Andretti Autosport’s Oliver Askew with a lap at 103.718 mph, ninth overall. Askew’s lap was seven-eighths of a second faster than Riley Motorsports’ Dylan Murry. CORE autosport’s Jon Bennett was third, then Rasmus Lindh and Gar Robinson.
Robinson’s teammate Felipe Fraga ran into trouble early in the session, sliding off-course at Canada Corner and drawing the session’s only red flag. The No. 74 Ligier JS P320-Nissan was not damaged significantly and was able to return to the track. Robinson posted his best lap in the car after Fraga’s incident.
PFAFF Motorsports’ Laurens Vanthoor shook off the pain from the broken nose he suffered last weekend at Spa to go fastest in GT Daytona with a lap at 102.570 mph. The lap, which was 11th overall, was two seconds faster than CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Jeff Westphal. NTe Sport’s JR Hildebrand was third fastest, then GRT Grasser Racing Team’s Franck Perera. Vasser Sullivan’s Zach Veach was fifth in his Lexus.
Finally, in GT Le Mans, Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia was fastest with a lap at 101.369 mph, 13th overall. Teammate Tommy Milner was nearly two seconds slower in second, then WeatherTech Racing’s Matt Campbell was third.
Five teams chose not to venture out onto the wet road course. The most notable of the bunch was Action Express Racing’s Cadillac DPi-V.R. shared by Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr. The Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin did not practice, along with the new efforts from JrIII Racing, Gilbert/Korthoff Motorsports and Wulver Racing.
IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SHOWCASE PRACTICE NO. 1 RESULTS
WeatherTech teams have another practice session scheduled for 9:55 a.m. ET Saturday morning. The forecast for practice looks just fine, but there is another chance of thunderstorms Saturday afternoon.
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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.
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