Ricky Taylor Sets Pace in Detroit Practice 1

Acura Team Penske set the pace in the first practice for the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on Detroit’s Belle Isle with Ricky Taylor setting the benchmark time late in running.

The defending race winner’s best lap of 1:21.909 in the No. 7 Acura ARX-05 was 0.206 seconds faster than Felipe Nasr in the second-place No. 31 Cadillac DPi-V.R for Action Express Racing.

Joao Barbosa was third on the charts in the sister No. 5 AXR Cadillac, followed by Dane Cameron in the No. 6 Acura and Colin Braun in the No. 54 Oreca 07 Gibson for CORE autosport.

Katherine Legge was the fastest of the GT Daytona runners in the No. 86 Acura NSX GT3 for Meyer Shank Racing.

Legge, who teamed with Andy Lally to take the first IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship win for the NSX GT3 at Detroit last year, was a full 0.455 seconds clear of second place Jack Hawksworth in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 for 3GT racing.

Lawson Aschenbach posted the third fastest lap time in the No. 93 MSR Acura, followed by Jeroen Bleekemolen and Madison Snow for Riley Motorsports and Paul Miller Racing, respectively.

The top six cars in GTD were separated by less than one second.

The only red flag of the session came in the opening minutes when the No. 77 Mazda RT24-P stopped on track with Oliver Jarvis behind the wheel.

The car was taken back to the attention of the Mazda Team Joest squad and returned shortly thereafter to complete 38 laps in the 90-minute session.

Practice 2 for the WeatherTech Championship is scheduled for 1:05 – 2:55 p.m. ET this afternoon with qualifying on tap at 5:20 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 1