Taylor Fastest in Sebring Night Practice

Ricky Taylor and Acura Team Penske showed the way in night practice ahead of Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

The second-generation driver set the time of 1:48.358 seconds early in the session in the No. 7 Acura ARX-05 and held onto the top spot by 0.177 seconds over championship rival Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Olivier Pla checked in with the third fastest overall time for Mazda, followed by Ryan Briscoe in the championship-contending No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.

Porsche took the top two spots in GT Le Mans courtesy of Nick Tandy’s best time of 1:58.170 in the No 911 Porsche 911 RSR-19. That time was ahead of Laurens Vanthoor’s best lap by a mere 0.030 seconds in the sister No. 912 Porsche.

Connor De Phillippi was third for BMW Team RLL with Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and BMW’s Augusto Farfus checking in with the fourth and fifth fastest times in class.

Franck Perera topped the ultra-competitive GT Daytona class that saw the top seven times separated by under half of a second.

Perera’s best time in the No. 11 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo was 0.130 seconds clear of Lawson Aschenbach in second for the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Ian James was third quickest in the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3, followed by Andrew Davis and Alessandro Balzan for Team Hardpoint and Scuderia Corsa, respectively.

Nick Yelloly impressed by posting the sixth fastest time in the class mere hours after arriving in Florida after getting the late call to replace Bill Auberlen due to COVID-19 concerns.

A late flier from Mikkel Jensen was good enough to snag the top spot in LMP2 by nearly two seconds in the No. 8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks Oreca 07 Gibson.

Simon Trummer was second for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports while Matt Bell and Guy Cosmo rounded out the LMP2 runners for Inter Europol and Performance Tech Motorsports, respectively.

The session ran without major incident with the most significant moment coming midway through the session when Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin went off track and into the tire barrier following a lockup into Turn 3.

Gavin was able to drive away and the car did not appear to suffer significant damage.

RESULTS: Practice 3