Filipe Albuquerque of Acura led the inaugural practice session for this weekend’s IMSA SportsCar Championship event at Road America.
Albuquerque outperformed BMW’s Connor De Phillippi and Sebastien Bourdais from Cadillac Racing, gearing up for Sunday’s 2h40m race on the four-mile circuit known as ‘America’s National Park of Speed’, featuring 47 cars.
The GTP hybrid class returned after a brief hiatus following the Mosport event last month.
Dane Cameron established the pace at 1m53.538s in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, which he shares with Felipe Nasr, just 0.015s ahead of the sister No. 6 car driven by Mathieu Jaminet.
After 10 minutes, lap times began to drop, with Louis Deletraz from No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06, Bourdais from Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, and Albuquerque from No. 10 WTR Acura all taking turns at the front. Albuquerque initially clocked a 1m52.555s before Deletraz bested it with a time of 1m52.451s.
After 20 minutes, De Phillippi claimed the top spot with a staggering lap of 1m51.500s in the No. 25 M Hybrid V8, leading by eight tenths over Jesse Krohn in the No. 24 sister car. Both BMW and Acura have recently conducted tests at Road America, and in Balance of Performance updates, the BMW has received a power boost of 1 kW, while the Acura ARX-06 has been adjusted to be 5kg heavier.
Deletraz clocked in with a 1m51.902s, putting him between the BMW duo, but still four tenths behind De Phillippi, while Ricky Taylor placed fourth in the No. 10 Acura with a time of 1m52.104s.
Bourdais experienced a moment off-track at Turn 5 but continued, a scenario mirrored later by Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac. This incident didn’t seem to slow Bourdais, who soon climbed to second place, 0.166s behind De Phillippi.
The session faced a red flag with 35 minutes remaining to clear debris from Turn 14.
The factory Porsches found themselves near the bottom of the top 10 until Nasr finished strong, clocking in third fastest in the No. 7 during the final 10 minutes.
With under four minutes left, Albuquerque surged to P1 with an impressive 1m51.089s, surpassing the competition by four tenths. He narrowly escaped a second red flag after Danny Formal’s WTR with Andretti Lamborghini Huracan found itself in the gravel at the final corner.
United Autosports at the forefront in LMP2
Paul di Resta set a blistering pace at 1m53.486s during the early stages in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca, a time that stood unchallenged throughout the 90-minute session.
Tom Dillmann followed, clocking in at 1m53.093s for Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen, with Ben Hanley from United’s No. 2 car and Mikkel Jensen from TDS rounding out the top four.
Mosport pole-winner PJ Hyett (AO Racing) faced a clash with Seth Lucas in the No. 20 MDK by High Class Racing entry at Turn 1, earning Hyett a drive-through penalty.
McLaren leads in GTD Pro
In GTD, Laurin Heinrich set the pace early in the AO Porsche 911 with a time of 2m05.687s but was soon eclipsed by Antonio Garcia (No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R) and Mike Rockenfeller (No. 64 Multimatic Ford Mustang).
Towards the session’s conclusion, however, Frederik Schandorff of Inception Racing propelled his McLaren 720S to the top of the timesheet, leading both the Pro class and the Pro-am competitors.
Garcia maintained his lead in the Pro class, followed closely by Rockenfeller and Nicky Catsburg from the sister No. 4 Corvette.
