Taylor Quickest as Barnicoat Crashes in Practice 2 at CTMP

Photo: Jake Galstad

Ricky Taylor led the way in final practice, which saw an accident for the GTD Pro class No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Ben Barnicoat.

Taylor reeled off a best lap of 1:04.919 in the closing stages of Saturday morning’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship session at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The DPi points leader was 0.194 seconds ahead of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 of Tom Blomqvist, who both put in qualifying simulations laps.

Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber were third and fourth, respectively, in their Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, meanwhile, with Tristan Vautier fifth in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac.

LMP3 was led by the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Colin Braun, who laid down a 1:11.309 lap time to outpace the No. 74 Riley Motorsports entry of Scott Andrews by more than six-tenths.

The 1 hour and 45-minute session saw a red flag for Barnicoat’s Lexus, which crashed in Turn 3 with about an hour left on the clock.

Barnicoat, who is sharing the car with Kamui Kobayashi this weekend, climbed from the car under his own power, with the car primarily sustaining front-end damage that the team is currently evaluating.

It was a mixed session for Vasser Sullivan and Lexus, with Frankie Montecalvo quickest in GTD class aboard the No. 12 entry.

Montecalvo’s 1:15.802 lap time held as the fastest of the production-based classes until a late-session improvement by Mathieu Jaminet in the GTD Pro class place-setting No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Alex Riberas was second in GTD Pro, followed by the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Jordan Taylor.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 12:40 p.m. ET.

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