Castroneves/Taylor/Rossi Acura paces Sebring night practice

With a long night of racing on the horizon and a championship in their sights, the No. 7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 of Ricky Taylor, Helio Castroneves, and Alexander Rossi led IMSA’s 90-minute run into darkness during practice at Sebring.

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Taylor’s quick lap (1m48.358s) was slightly faster than the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R piloted by Pipo Derani (+0.177s), and Olivier Pla in the No. 77 Mazda DPi (+0.259s).

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In LMP2, the No. 8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks ORECA 07-Gibson driven by Mikkel Jensen (1m50.127s) led PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Simon Trummer in the No. 52 ORECA (+1.936s) and Matthew Bell in the No. 51 Inter Europol Competition ORECA (+2.285s)

GT Le Mans featured a Porsche GT Team 1-2 with Nick Tandy’s No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR (1m58.170s) holding a tiny edge over the No. 912 driven by Laurens Vanthoor (+0.030s). Connor De Phillippi rounded out the top three in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE (+0.291s).

The fastest GT Daytona entry was Franck Perera’s No. 11 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (2m02.510s). Riley Motorsports Lawson Aschenbach was next in the No. 74 Mercedes-AMG GT3 (+0.130s), and the routinely impressive Heart of Racing No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 driven by Ian James (+0.228s) displaced most of the class on his way to third.

Plenty of harmless spins took place during the session, which also included a quick visit into the Turn 3 tire barriers by Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin.

UP NEXT: Qualifying, 10:15 a.m. ET

PRACTICE 3

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