Pipo Derani and Mike Rockenfeller of Action Express Racing topped the second practice for the IMSA Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring after a late burst of good laps.
Ryan Hunter-#01 Reay’s Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R was fastest for the majority of the 90-minute session, but when the track was cleared of Pro-Am entries for the final 15 minutes, several cars went for qualifying simulations, and Derani set a 1min45.750sec lap of the 3.741-mile Sebring course.
Because Toyota-contracted Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi are being compelled to focus on their WEC efforts until the finish of tomorrow’s WEC 1000-mile race, the Whelen Engineering #31 car was 0.376sec faster than colleague Rockenfeller, who is the sole driver able to run the #48 Ally Cadillac.
Alex Lynn in the #02 Ganassi machine eventually outperformed Renger van der Zande’s best effort in the #01, while Wayne Taylor Racing’s Acura ARX-05, in which Ricky Taylor had a short spin after hitting his personal best, separated the two.
JDC-Miller MotorSports, the Sebring winner last year, was sixth fastest, 1.8 seconds off the winning time, but the car did get some track time. The #60 Acura of Meyer Shank Racing did not complete a lap due to an engine replacement on the Rolex 24-winning car.
Rui Andrade, driving for Tower Motorsports, set the quickest time in LMP2, finishing 0.235 seconds ahead of Mikkel Jensen, driving the faster of the two PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports cars.
Sebastian Montoya, who made his IMSA debut this morning, led the DragonSpeed entry with the fastest time, followed by Jonathan Bomarito in the second PR1/Mathiasen entry and Ryan Dalziel in the Era Motorsport machine.
Cameron Shields of Performance Tech Motorsports led the LMP3 times ahead of Malthe Jakobsen of Sean Creech Motorsports and Kay van Berlo of Riley Motorsports, completing a Ligier 1-2-3. The fastest Duqueine driver was Ugo de Wilde, who was driving for Muehlner Motorsports.
Andrea Caldarelli took the lead in GTD Pro with his TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan on the fifth of 29 laps, less than a tenth faster than Philipp Eng’s best effort in the #24 Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run works BMW M4.
Four different marques were represented in the top four in class, with Davide Rigon’s Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 in third and Aaron Telitz’s Vasser Sullivan #14 Lexus RC F in fourth.
Lower down the order, Alex Riberas (Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage), Nicky Catsburg in the lone Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, Kyle Marcelli in the Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Acura NSX, and Julien Andlauer (WeatherTech Racing) and Felipe Nasr (Pfaff Motorsports) in a couple of Porsche 911 GT3 Rs followed Augusto Farfus in the second BMW.
Despite the fact that this was Paul Miller Racing’s first weekend racing the BMW M4, Bryan Sellers topped the GTD times, nearly a quarter second clear of Daniel Juncadella in the Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, and only two of the GTD Pro cars were outpaced.
Third went to Giorgio Sernagiotto’s Cetilar Racing Ferrari 488 ahead of Richard Heistand’s Lexus RC F, with Turner Motorsports’ Bill Auberlen ensuring there were two BMWs in the top five.
The 90-minute night practice session starts at 7.45 p.m. local time (Eastern).
