Vanthoor Leads Red Flag-Filled Long Beach Practice 2

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Dries Vanthoor led the way in the second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session for Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach that featured four red flags.

In another BMW M Team RLL 1-2 run, the Belgian reeled off a best lap of 1:12.201 lap time in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to outpace teammate, and Practice 1 pace-setter Sheldon van der Linde by 0.141 seconds.

Jack Aitken was third quickest in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, with Mathieu Jaminet and Felipe Nasr completing the top-five for Porsche Penske Motorsport.

Robert Wickens, in his GTD debut weekend, topped the time charts in the production-based ranks in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Wickens’ 1:17.897 lap time was two-tenths clear of second-placed Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Jonny Edgar was third quickest in the No. 177 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The first red came out for the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Trent Hindman, which stopped on track in Turn 5.

An off by Misha Goikhberg in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini in Turn 9 brought out the second stoppage, while Wickens stopped in the Turn 1 runoff for another red.

The biggest incident of the session came from Colin Braun, whose No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 made right-side contact with the Turn 1 tire barriers, resulting in both Wickens and the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Manny Franco taking avoiding action by driving into the Turn 1 runoff.

A number of other cars had off-track excursions but did not result in any additional red flags.

Qualifying is set to get underway at 5:10 p.m. PST (8:10 p.m. EST) with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA’s YouTube channel.

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