Bamber Quickest in Opening Detroit Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Earl Bamber put Action Express Racing atop the time charts in the first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session for Saturday’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.

Bamber, at the wheel of the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R, reeled off a chart-topping 1:07.182 lap time in the 90-minute session, edging out the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor by 0.146 seconds.

Nick Yelloly made a late-session improvement to end up third quickest in the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, while Felipe Nasr made it four different GTP manufacturers in the top-four, in his No. 7 Penske Porsche 963.

Ricky Taylor completed the top-five in his No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.

GTD Pro was led by the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg, who reeled off a 1:10.921 lap time.

It was 0.278 seconds quicker than the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Ben Barnicoat, with Fred Vervisch third in the No. 65 Multiamtic-run Ford Mustang GT3 EVO.

The session saw two red flags, the first for debris that was determined to have come off the No. 7 Porsche, and a second red with 15 minutes to go for the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 of Sandy Mitchell, who was unable to restart after going into the Turn 3 runoff.

Both cars will lose their fastest laps in qualifying as a result of bring out reds.

More than half the 21 cars had excursions in various run-offs, although there were no reported signifiant wall impacts.

Practice 2, a two-hour long session, is scheduled for a 11:30 a.m. EST start.

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