Acuras Continue Dominant Form in Practice 2 at Long Beach

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Tom Blomqvist improved on Ricky Taylor’s pace-setting lap from the morning to go quickest in second practice for Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The Meyer Shank Racing driver stormed to a best time of 1:10.391, in another 1-2 sweep for the pair of Acura ARX-06 GTP class entries.

Blomqvist’s time was 0.323 seconds faster than the No. 1o Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura of Filipe Albuquerque, with Nick Yelloly putting the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 third on the overall time charts.

The No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Alexander Sims and No. 24 BMW completed the top-five.

Penske’s two Porsche 963s were sixth and seventh, ahead of the defending race-winning No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Renger van der Zande in eighth.

The Dutchman brought out the session’s only red flag after stalling in the Turn 9 runoff area. It was one of nearly a dozen brake lock-ups from the GTP cars in the session.

A late improvement by Jack Hawksworth saw the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 top the GTD Pro ranks.

Hawksworth’s 1:17.876 lap was 0.424 seconds quicker than the second-placed No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Pilet.

Antonio Garcia was third in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD, followed by Ross Gunn’s No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Andretti led the GTD category with Mario Farnbacher’s 1:18.516 in the No. 93 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22.

Farnbacher, who ended up fifth overall amongst the GT cars, edged out the No. 80 AO Racing Porsche of Seb Priaulx and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen, which were second and third, respectively in class.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 5:15 p.m. PT (8:15 p.m. ET) with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA Radio.

RESULTS: Practice 2

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