Blomqvist Leads Incident-Filled Opening Practice at IMS

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Tom Blomqvist led an Acura Meyer Shank Racing 1-2 in opening practice for Sunday’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in an incident-filled session that featured three red flags, numerous spins and penalties.

Blomqvist, in the No. 60 Acura ARX-06, reeled off a best lap of 1:16.209 to edge out teammate Nick Yelloly by 0.268 seconds.

Jack Aitken put the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R third on the time sheets, with Ricky and Jordan Taylor completing the top-five in the pair of Wayne Taylor Racing entries.

Sheldon van der Linde was sixth in the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, followed by teammate Dries Vanthoor, the Riley-run Lamborghini SC63 of Romain Grosjean, the Roman De Angelis-driven Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie, which rounded out the top-nine.

The three Porsche 963s, which received both a pre-event weight increase and power reduction, brought up the rear of the 12-car class.

LMP2 was led by the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Mikkel Jensen, despite numerous incidents and penalties for the Peugeot Hypercar factory driver.

Aston Martin factory ace Valentin Hasse-Clot was the quickest of the entries in the production-based ranks, reeling off a 1:24.403 lap in his GTD class No. 19 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

It was just 0.016 seconds quicker than the GTD Pro pace-setting No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 of Davide Rigon.

Among the early session incidents included an off-course excursion for the No. 74 Riley Oreca of Felipe Fraga in Turn 12, while Tom Dillmann, in his series return after a back injury, was handed a drive-through penalty for blocking in his No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca.

The first red came out for the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nick Catsburg, which stopped in the Turn 4 run-off with an oil leak.

It led to a lengthy delay due to fluids laid down on the circuit that needed to be cleaned up.

When the session restarted with 40 minutes to go, the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari of AJ Muss was turned around by Naveen Rao’s PR1/Mathiasen Oreca, which resulted in a drive-through penalty to Rao for incident responsibility.

Rao then was forced to serve a subsequent drive-through for speeding in the pit lane while serving his first penalty.

While Daniel Goldburg looped his No. 22 United Autosports Oreca in Turn 6, the second red was for debris, triggered by contact between the No. 11 TDS entry of Jensen and Lilou Wadoux’s No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari

Per IMSA race control, Jensen’s car will lose its fastest qualifying time due to the indirect result of bringing out the red flag.

The final 30 minutes saw additional incidents for the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports Oreca of Chris Cumming, who spun in Tuen 7, while Jensen was again forced to serve another drive-through penalty for incident responsibility for making contact with the No. 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia.

Lorenzo Patrese, meanwhile, spun his No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari in Turn 12, also in the closing minutes.

The third and final red came with 13 minutes remaining when Philipp Eng spun into the Turn 4 gravel trap, with the session restarting with eight minutes to go and saw the No. 75 SunEnergy1-backed Mercedes-AMG of Kenny Habul stop on track in Turn 13 before continuing to the pits.

As was the case with the No. 11 TDS LMP2 entry, Eng’s No. 24 BMW will also lose its fastest time in qualifying due to bringing out a red.

Practice 2 is on tap for Saturday at 8:55 a.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