Yelloly Leads Acura MSR 1-2 in Opening Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Nick Yelloly led a Meyer Shank Racing 1-2 in opening practice for this weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans.

Yelloly, in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06, recorded a best lap of 1:11.506 lap time to edge out teammate Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Acura by a mere 0.003 seconds.

Laurens Vanthoor made a late-session improvement to end up third in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, ahead of GTP points leader Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R in fourth.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Ricky Taylor completed the top-five.

LMP2 was led by the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 Gibson of Tom Dillmann, who edged out Dane Cameron in the No. 99 AO Racing entry by six-tenths.

Matias Beche was third in the No. 11 TDS Racing entry.

Jack Hawksworth topped the time charts in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, in the car’s expected last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship outing.

Hawksworth was one-tenths quicker than Tom Sargent in the GTD class-leading No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, who was second quickest amongst the GT cars.

The No. 16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Felipe Fraga was next quickest, with Antonio Fuoco and Albert Costa completing the top-five in the production-based ranks for AF Corse and Conquest Racing, respectively.

There were no red flags in the 90-minute session, although there were some incidents, including one between the No. 34 Conquest Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo and No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports Oreca, with Lorenzo Patrese handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

The No. 7 Penske Porsche, meanwhile, served a drive-through for contact with the No. 25 BMW, while a number of cars received warnings or drive-through penalties for pit speeding infringements.

Tom Gamble slid his No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo through the gravel in Turn 5 after getting caught out over a curb.

Practice 2 gets underway at 3:20 p.m. EST.

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