Late Flyer Puts Vanthoor on Top in Road America Practice 2

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Dries Vanthoor laid down a late session flyer to put BMW M Team RLL atop the time sheets in the second and final practice session prior to qualifying for Sunday’s Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America.

Vanthoor, in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8, recorded a 1:49.676 to edge out the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Nick Yelloly by a mere 0.006 seconds.

Sheldon van der Linde was third quickest in the No. 25 BMW, while the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr was fourth on the time charts.

The No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken completed the top-five.

Of note, the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie, which set the second quickest time in opening practice, was tenth on the time sheets this morning, more than two seconds adrift from the pace-setting times.

LMP2 was led by the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca 07 Gibson of Malthe Jakobsen, while the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims topped GTD Pro.

The No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Kenton Koch, meanwhile, was quickest in GTD.

The session saw two red flags, the first for a quick spin by the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca of Steven Thomas in Turn 6.

A more significant incident occurred near the session’s midpoint when the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Marco Mapelli had contact with Benjamin Pedersen’s No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca at the bottom of the hill on the front-straight, resulting in Mapelli slamming hard into the concrete barriers.

The No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca of George Kurtz was also collected in the incident while attempting to avoid Mapelli’s loose right-rear wheel, sustaining damage as well.

It resulted in a 18-minute red flag stoppage for barrier repairs.

Jakobsen’s pace-setting time in LMP2 came after the repairs made to the CrowdStrike-sponsored entry in the garage and returned for the final 20 minutes of the session.

Both the TDS Oreca and No. 9 Pfaff Lamborghini will join the two United Autosports entries in all losing their fastest laps in qualifying due to bringing out red flags in practice across Friday and Saturday morning.

There were several other spins in the session, including an off by the No. 2 United Oreca of Phil Fayer in Turn 8 and Chris Cumming looping his No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports LMP2 entry in Turn 3, although both continued.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 4:40 p.m. CST with live coverage on Peacock as well as IMSA’s YouTube channel.

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