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Allmendinger leads for Acura in second Rolex 24 practice
A.J. Allmendinger roared to the top of the charts late in Thursday’s second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice for the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The NASCAR driver turned the best lap of the day during the incident-free session, 1m34.287s, in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05.
Cadillacs took the next three places. Kamui Kobayashi was second with his final lap in the No. 48 Ally Cadillac (-0.232s), followed by Scott Dixon in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R (-0.275s), Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Mustang Sampling Cadillac (-0.529s)
Jonathan Bomarito was fifth in the No. 55 Mazda RT-24P (-0.549s), followed by Felipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura (-0.985s) and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott in the pole-winning No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac (-1.058s).
Gianmaria Bruni put Porsche atop the GT Le Mans chart, where the top four cars were separated by 0.367s. Bruni ran 1m42.600s in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19. Second was James Calado in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE (-.0.154s), followed by Antonio Garcia in the No. 4 Corvette C8-R (-0.227s) and Tommy Milner (-0.367s).
In GT Daytona, Mirko Bortolotti rebounded from an early incident in opening practice to lead the afternoon session, running 1m45.690s in the No. 111 GRT Grasser Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Owen Trinkler was second in the No. 64 TeamTGM Porsche 911 GT3R (-0.243s), ahead of Katherine Legge in the No. 88 Team Hardpoint EBM Porsche 911 GT3R (-0.268s). The top 10 cars were separated by 0.894s.
The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP 07-Gibson led for the second consecutive LMP2 session. This time, Mikkel Jensen was at the wheel with a lap of 1m35.979s, 0.174s quicker than teammate Nicolas Lapierre in opening practice.
Matthieu Vaxivere was second in the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA (-0.175s), followed by Robert Kubica in the No. 20 High Class Racing ORECA (-.874s).
The new LMP3 class saw Dylan Murry out front with a lap of 1m43.175s in the No. 91 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320, followed by Riley Motorsports teammate Scott Andrews in the No. 74 Ligier (-0.395s), Rasmus Lindh in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier (-.639s), and Joao Barbosa in the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier (-0.749s).
UP NEXT: Today’s activity concludes with night practice from 7:15-9 p.m. ET. The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors have only one on-track opportunity on Friday, final practice at 11:20 a.m. The 59th Rolex 24 is set to start at 3:40 p.m. on Saturday.
J.J. O'Malley
J.J. O’Malley became news editor for Chris Economaki in 1977, launching him on a career covering all facets of motorsports in many capacities. He did public relations at Watkins Glen International for 14 years; followed by four seasons at Homestead-Miami Speedway; news editor at ISC Publications (now Edgeset Marketing); and communications manager for Grand-Am and IMSA. He’s currently completing his 13th book on racing – a history of the Daytona Prototype – in addition to covering events for RACER.com, Edgeset Marketing and Sunday Group Management. O’Malley is an honorary member of the prestigious Road Racing Drivers Club.
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