Long Beach IMSA: Derani's AXR Cadillac leads Practice 1

The #31 Whelen Engineering car ran 26 laps, Derani's best effort of 1min12.387sec coming on his final flyer and it was almost a second faster than the opposition.  

That primarily came from Richard Westbrook, for whom this will be a first crack at Long Beach at the wheel of a Prototype. Despite a brief spin at Turn 8 with 15mins to go, causing a red flag, his JDC Miller MotorSports Caddy finished second, just ahead of the impressively steered Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 of Tom Blomqvist, a rookie to both the series and track. The #60 did venture into the runoof at Turn 1 but continued unharmed. 

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Lynn were almost a second apart in fourth and sixth respectively, split by Ricky Taylor’s best effort in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura.  

Three GTD cars beat the best GTD Pro time, with Bill Auberlen – now inducted into the Long Beach Walk of Fame – topping the times in the Turner Motorsports BMW M4 with a 1min19.891sec lap.  

He was over four-tenths clear of Marc Miller in the Gradient Racing Acura NSX, who in turn was mere hundredths faster than Frankie Montecalvo’s best effort in Vasser Sullivan Racing’s Pro-Am entry Lexus RC F. 

Ross Gunn in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage was P1 among the GTD Pro cars but he was only hundredths ahead of WeatherTech Racing’s newcomre Raffaele Marciello, as the team begins its full-time switch from Porsche to Mercedes. 

However, Mathieu Jaminet proved there’s still plenty of life left in the old 911 GT3 R with third fastest in Pfaff Motorsports entry, again less than a tenth off Riberas, despite the car’s two visits to runoff areas – once at Turn 6, the other at Turn 1.  

Ben Barnicoat was next up in the VSR Lexus he shares with Jack Hawksworth, but he brought the session to a premature close with a minor shunt at Turn 1 that brought out the red flag for a fourth time. 

Second practice commences at 1.15pm PT. 

Cla	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Pipo Derani Tristan Nunez	DPi	Cadillac DPi	26	1'12.387
2	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook	DPi	Cadillac DPi	22	1'13.329	0.942
3	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist	DPi	Acura DPi	25	1'13.364	0.977
4	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais	DPi	Cadillac DPi	20	1'13.642	1.255
5	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Acura DPi	24	1'13.703	1.316
6	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn	DPi	Cadillac DPi	23	1'14.509	2.122
7	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	25	1'19.891	7.504
8	Mario Farnbacher Marc Miller	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	27	1'20.296	7.909
9	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	25	1'20.373	7.986
10	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	24	1'20.401	8.014
11	Cooper MacNeil Raffaele Marciello	GTD PRO	Mercedes-AMG GT3	27	1'20.448	8.061
12	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	25	1'20.459	8.072
13	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	26	1'20.519	8.132
14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	21	1'20.628	8.241
15	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	23	1'20.703	8.316
16	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	28	1'20.780	8.393
17	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	23	1'20.825	8.438
18	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	26	1'20.985	8.598
19	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	8	1'21.004	8.617
20	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	25	1'21.025	8.638
21	Robert Megennis Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	13	1'21.109	8.722
22	Jon Miller Paul Holton	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	23	1'21.307	8.920
23	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	26	1'21.442	9.055
24	Ryan Eversley Aidan Read	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	24	1'21.522	9.135
25	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	26	1'21.564	9.177
26	Kyle Washington James Sofronas	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	24	1'21.595	9.208
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