Acura Responds with Best Time in Second Practice

Dane Cameron topped the timing charts for Acura Team Penske in the second practice session for this weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

After the No. 6 Acura crew’s main title rival – the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. – led the field in first practice, Cameron responded to put Penske out front on Thursday afternoon.

Championship co-leader Cameron, who shares the No. 6 Acura ARX-05 DPi with Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud, produced a time of 1:09.095 to go quickest late in the one-hour, 15-minute session.

This bumped the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R down to second, shortly before Juan Piedrahita spun the car off into the gravel at Turn 6.

Earlier in the session, Tristan Vautier had gone to the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1:09.347.

Piedrahita’s off was one of four incidents to bring out the red flags for a combined total of 21 minutes.

Three of these stoppages were for off-track moments involving DPi machinery, with the No. 84 JDC-Miller Cadillac bringing out the first red flag early on.

The next two interventions were caused by Justin Marks in the GT Daytona-class No. 86 Acura NSX GT3 Evo and Tristan Nunez in the No.  77 Mazda DPi, who both exited the road at Turn 10a.

A series of late improvements after Piedrahita’s rotation saw Filipe Albuquerque jump to third in the overall order in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac, and Matthieu Vaxiviere to fourth in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac which won Petit Le Mans last year.

Quickest in the GT Le Mans class was Daniel Serra aboard the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

The reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans GTE-Pro class winner’s time of 1:16.708 put him two-tenths clear of Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.

Felipe Fraga set the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 on top of the pile in GT Daytona, while Gabriel Aubry paced LMP2 for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.

A third practice session will take place at 7:30 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 2