Heart of Racing Valkyrie Quickest in Night Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Ross Gunn led the way in Thursday night practice for Heart of Racing Team, putting the No. 23 Aston Martin Valkyrie on top of the time charts for the first time in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship history.

Gunn reeled off a 1:11.985 in the LMH-based GTP class entry to lead the final practice session prior to qualifying for Saturday’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The Englishman’s time was a mere 0.009 seconds quicker than the second-placed No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande, which returned to action in the second half of the 90-minute session after battling electrical issues that dated back to the afternoon’s practice session.

GTP championship leader Matt Campbell ended up third quickest in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, with the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R and No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Ricky Taylor and Robin Frijns completed the top-five.

The No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Mikkel Jensen paced LMP2, while Jack Hawksworth ended up the fastest GT competitor in his GTD class No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.

Hawksworth’s 1:19.322 lap time was 0.085 seconds faster than teammate Ben Barnicoat in the GTD Pro class pace-setting entry.

Frederik Schandorff was the best non-Lexus runner in the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, which was third quickest and second best in GTD.

There were no red flags during the session, which ran without any major incidents, other than an early session off-course excursion for the No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca of Tobi Lutke, who continued.

Additionally, Hawksworth’s No. 12 Lexus received a drive-through penalty for a pit lane protocol violation.

Next up for WeatherTech Championship competitors is qualifying, which gets underway Friday at 3:20 p.m. EST with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA’s YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Practice 3

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