Late Flyer Puts Derani, AXR on Top Friday at Mid-Ohio

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Pipo Derani set the quickest time in Friday’s lone IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session for this weekend’s Acura Sports Car Challenge presented by TLX Type S at Mid-Ohio.

The Brazilian took his No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R to a best lap of 1:11.846 in the hour-long session, outpacing Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 by 0.375 seconds late in the running.

Derani was the only driver to break the 1:12 barrier in the hour-long session.

Dane Cameron made it two Acura DPis in the top-three, thanks to a 1:12.501 lap time in his No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing entry.

Renger van der Zande (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring winner Tristan Vautier (JDC-Miller Motorsports) completed the top-five in their Cadillacs, with the Multimatic-run Mazda RT24-P more than one-second off the pace in sixth.

It came despite a pre-race Balance of Performance boost to the Mazda DPi.

LMP3 was paced by the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Colin Braun, who was one-tenth quicker than Oliver Askew in the debuting Andretti Autosport Ligier.

Felipe Fraga was third quickest in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports entry, meanwhile.

Jack Hawksworth, who is going for his third consecutive Mid-Ohio class win, led GT Daytona, thanks to a 1:20.513 in his No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.

Hawksworth was nearly three-tenths clear of the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Bill Auberlen and a further tenths up on the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long, who completed the top-three in class.

A red flag on the opening lap for the stalled Andretti Ligier halted action briefly, with no other major incidents occurring over the session. All cars entered this weekend set times.

Practice 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 8:50 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