Vautier Tops Opening Detroit Practice

Photo: IMSA

Tristan Vautier led the way in opening practice for this weekend’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Detroit’s Belle Isle, putting Cadillac atop the time sheets.

Vautier reeled off a 1:21.588 in the closing minutes of the 90-minute session in his No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsport Cadillac DPi-V.R to edge out the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 of Ricky Taylor by 0.096 seconds.

Taylor had paced the session until the Frenchman’s late flyer, which came in the final five minutes. 

The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Kevin Magnussen was third quickest followed by the No. 31 Action Express Racing entry, which led early in the session in the hands of Felipe Nasr but saw co-driver Pipo Derani ultimately set the car’s best time.

Harry Tincknell put the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P in fifth, with the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura DPi bringing up the rear in the six-car class.

A late flyer by Mario Farnbacher put the No. 76 Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo on top in GT Daytona, meanwhile.

The German laid down a 1:30.932 to outpace the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo of Richard Heistand by 0.353 seconds.

The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth was third in class.

Bryan Sellers set the fourth quickest time in class although his co-driver Madison Snow brought out a red flag with 14 minutes to go with smoke coming from his No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, which stopped on track.

The session restated with six minutes remaining.

All 20 cars set times, including the pair of factory Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs running alone in the non-points scoring GT Le Mans class this weekend.

Practice 2 is scheduled to get underway at 12 p.m. ET followed by qualifying later in the 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