Taylor Tops Opening Practice at Road America

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Ricky Taylor led the way for an Acura Team Penske 1-2 in opening practice for this weekend’s IMSA Road Race Showcase at Road America.

Taylor, in the No. 7 Acura ARX-05, reeled off a best lap of 1:50.654 late in Friday afternoon’s 60-minute session, outpacing out the sister No. 6 entry of Dane Cameron by 0.275 seconds.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Renger van der Zande was third quickest, with Felipe Nasr fourth in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi.

The pair of Multimatic-run Mazda RT24-P, which were pre-event favorites, posted the fifth and sixth best times out of the eight-car DPi class.

LMP2 was led by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Simon Trummer, who recorded a 1:53.381 lap time in his return to WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition after missing the Sebring round.

Porsche 1-2 in GTLM; Turner Paces in GTD

The pair of factory Porsche 911 RSR-19 led the way in GT Le Mans, with Fred Makowiecki quickest with a 2:01.492 lap time in the No. 911 entry he shares with Nick Tandy.

The No. 912 Porsche of Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor was second, followed by the No. 24 BMW M8 GTE of Jesse Krohn.

Issues for the No. 25 BMW, which stopped on track in Turn 5 with smoke billowing from the car, resulted in the first of two red flags.

The second red came due to an accident by the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca of Cameron Cassels, which retuned to action in the hands of co-driver James French in the closing moments.

Turner Motorsport, meanwhile, led GT Daytona, with Robby Foley’s 2:06.882 lap time in the No. 96 BMW M6 GT3 edging out the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long by 0.820 seconds.

Lawson Aschenbach was third quickest in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Practice 2 gets underway Saturday at 8:55 a.m. CT, followed by qualifying in the early afternoon.

RESULTS: Practice 1

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