Van der Zande Tops Night Practice; Forte, Corvette Crash

Renger van der Zande set the pace in night practice for Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, which was notably red flagged for a crash involving Forte Racing and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.

The Dutchman steered the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to a best lap of 1:11.626, outpacing the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 of Andrea Caldarelli by 0.362 seconds.

While Felipe Nasr took third in the No. 7 Porsche 963, the pair of Porsche Penske Motorsport entries were split by a late flyer from the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Augusto Farfus.

Mathieu Jaminet completed the top five in the No. 6 Porsche, ahead of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing by Andretti Acura ARX-06 of Ricky Taylor.

Taylor’s co-driver Filipe Albuquerque brought the car into the pits with right-rear damage after the checkered flag had fallen.

Jack Aitken slotted into seventh in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, ahead of the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche in the hands of Phil Hanson.

Ben Hanley led the way for United Autosports in LMP2, posting a 1:13.178 aboard the No. 2 Oreca 07 Gibson to lead Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ Tom Dillmann and TDS Racing’s Mikkel Jensen.

Robby Foley was the outright fastest driver in the GT ranks, with the BMW factory driver reeling off a 1:19.195 aboard the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.

Laurin Heinrich was 0.078 seconds further back in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, leading GTD Pro in the process.

A red flag was shown about 30 minutes into the session after a Turn 2 collision between Daniel Juncadella’s No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and the No. 78 Forte Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Loris Spinelli sent both cars spinning down the hill and off-track.

Juncadella, who was on a timed lap, made contact with the side of a slower-moving Forte Lamborghini, which was exiting the pits on cold tires, resulting in damage to the rear-right of the Corvette.

The session resumed with 48 minutes remaining, but was red flagged not much later when Romain Grosjean spun the No. 63 Lamborghini at Turn 2.

Qualifying is slated for Friday at 3:25 p.m. EDT with live coverage available on Peacock and IMSA.tv.

RESULTS: Practice 3

Jonathan Grace contributed to this report