AXR Leads Caddy 1-2-3; DragonSpeed Crashes in Practice 2

Joao Barbosa and the No. 5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R showed the pace in the second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice at Daytona, but the first contact of the weekend halted the 30-minute practice five minutes before its scheduled conclusion.

Loic Duval spun the Roar Before 24 pace-setting No. 81 Oreca 07 Gibson in Turn 1 and  clouted the inside wall.

The car, which ended the session in P4, appeared to suffer significant damage to the left side of the chassis. The Elton Julian-led team does have a spare car on site if necessary.

Barbosa and AXR, meanwhile, have topped both practices so far, with Barbosa’s time of 1:38.549 some four-tenths off of co-driver Christian Fittipaldi’s pace-setting time from Practice 1.

Practice 2 featured a Cadillac 1-2-3 at the top of the time sheets for the second time in as many sessions. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor clocked in 0.177 seconds off of the AXR car, while Dane Cameron put the sister car in the top-three as well.

Just before Duval’s session-ending accident, Ed Brown in the No. 22 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi came to a halt on the backstretch and had to be towed to the garage after running out of fuel.

Also of note, Rebellion Racing’s Oreca did not make an appearance after suffering a fly-by-wire problem in the first practice.

Johnny Mowlem set the pace in Prototype Challenge with a lap of 1:44.175 for BAR1 Motorsports, with Pato O’Ward just 0.027 seconds behind in the Performance Tech Motorsports entry.

Olivier Pla put the No. 68 Ford GT on top of the GT Le Mans field with about 10 minutes remaining in the session, edging Toni Vilander in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE and Bill Auberlen and the resurgent BMW Team RLL No. 19 BMW M6 GTLM.

Patrick Lindsey paced the GT Daytona field, lapping in a class-best 1:47.135 in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Up next for the WeatherTech Championship teams are 15-minute qualifying sessions for all four classes, beginning with GTD at 3:10 P.M. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 2