Montoya Quickest on Friday at Laguna Seca

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

A late flyer by Juan Pablo Montoya has put Acura Team Penske on top in the opening day of practice for the Monterey Sports Car Championship powered by McLaren at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The Colombian reeled off a 1:16.003 lap in the No. 6 Acura ARX-05 late in the afternoon practice session, edging out the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Felipe Nasr by 0.078 seconds.

The two teams enter the Sunday’s penultimate race of the season in a tight points battle, with Montoya and co-driver Dane Cameron leading the DPi championship by seven points over Nasr and Pipo Derani. 

Oliver Jarvis made it three different DPi manufacturers in the top-three in the No. 77 Team Joest Mazda RT24-P, which improved slightly over the Englishman’s pace-setting time from the morning session.

The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi was fourth, with the No. 84 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac completing the top-five.

Issues continued for the No. 55 Mazda DPi, which spent time in the garage undergoing a rear-end rebuild following issues from the morning session.

It completed a total of 18 laps in the session.

Corvette Racing ended up 1-2 in GT Le Mans in the session, led by the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia, who was 0.130 seconds faster than teammate Oliver Gavin.

However it was Richard Westbrook’s 1:22.548 lap time set in the morning session that held as quickest of the day in the class, for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing.

Paul Miller Racing, meanwhile, continued to lead the way in GT Daytona, thanks to a 1:25.246 lap set by Bryan Sellers in the No. 48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo in the afternoon.

The No. 76 Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3 ended the session second in class and third overall on the day, followed by the No. 44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini.

Kyle Masson was quickest of the two LMP2 competitors in his No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson.

A final 60-minute practice session is on tap for Saturday at 8:45 a.m. PDT followed by qualifying later in the day.

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