Jarvis Paces Opening Practice at Laguna Seca

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Mazda Team Joest led the way in the opening practice session of the weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in preparation for Sunday’s Monterey Sports Car Championship powered by McLaren.

The No. 77 Team Joest Mazda RT24-P of Oliver Jarvis was quickest of the session, thanks to a 1:16.442 lap in the Multimatic-built DPi contender.

Jarvis was 0.153 seconds quicker than the No. 6 Team Penske Acura ARX-05 of Juan Pablo Montoya, followed by the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Filipe Albuquerque, who was quickest of the Cadillac DPis in third.

Renger van der Zande and Pipo Derani completed the top-five for Wayne Taylor Racing and Whelen Engineering Racing, respectively.

Both of the Mazda DPis had a difficult session, with overheating brakes as well as bodywork issues for the No. 55 car of Harry Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito.

GT Le Mans saw the No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Richard Westbrook go quickest with a 1:22.548 lap time, nearly three-tenths clear of Tommy Milner’s No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, who ended up second.

The No. 24 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE of Jesse Krohn, which is carrying a black livery this weekend, was third quickest in class.

Paul Miller Racing’s Bryan Sellers posted the quickest time in GT Daytona, with Matt McMurry leading the way in LMP2 aboard his No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson.

The second and final WeatherTech Championship practice session of the day gets underway at 3:15 p.m. PDT.

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