Campbell Tops Friday Practice at Laguna Seca

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Matt Campbell led the way in opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice for Sunday’s Motul Course de Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The Porsche Penske Motorsport driver reeled off a best lap of 1:16.703 in his No. 7 Porsche 963 to edge out the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Colin Braun by 0.316 seconds.

Campbell’s teammate Mathieu Jaminet was third on the time charts in the GTP championship-leading No. 6 Porsche.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura of Ricky Taylor and Pipo Derani’s No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R completed the top-five, meanwhile.

The sister Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais ended the session early after losing control of his No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing entry in Turn 6 and slamming into the barriers. It brought out the first of two red flags.

Bourdais was evaluated and released from the infield medical center, with the car not returning to action in the session after sustaining right-front damage.

JDC-Miller Motorsports’ new Porsche 963, meanwhile, completed 17 laps in the hands of Mike Rockenfeller, with a best lap that put the car 17th quickest overall after working through electrical systems.

Louis Deletraz was quickest in LMP2 in the No. 8 Tower Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson, ahead of Ben Hanley and Ryan Dalziel for CrowdStrike by APR and Era Motorsport, respectively.

The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Frankie Montecalvo ended up the quickest car in the GT ranks, thanks to a 1:24.796 by the Silver-rated driver.

Montecalvo was 0.086 seconds ahead of the second-placed No. 80 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Seb Priaulx, with Russell Ward making it a top-three sweep for GTD class machinery in his No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Vasser Sullivan’s Ben Barnicoat, meanwhile, was the quickest of the GTD Pro class competitors with the fourth quickest time in the production-based ranks.

The second red in the 90-minute session came out for the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca of Mikkel Jensen, which stopped on track with less than 20 minutes to go.

Practice 2 is set to get underway Saturday at 8:55 a.m. PT (11:55 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Practice 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John