Tristan Vautier gave Cadillac early bragging rights at its home track by turning the fastest lap in the closing seconds of Friday morning’s opening practice for the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Detroit’s Belle Isle circuit.
Vautier turned a lap of 1m21.588s in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling/JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R to pace the six-car DPi field in the 90-minute session. Ricky Taylor was a close second, +0.096s in his father Wayne Taylor’s No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura DPi.
Next were a pair of Cadillacs. Kevin Magnussen was third, +0.187s back with a late lap in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, followed by Pipo Derani, +0.305s in the No. 31 Action Express/Whelen Engineering entry.
Mazda was fifth, with Harry Tincknell +0.377s behind in the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports DPi.
Nick Tandy led the two Corvettes running in the exhibition GTLM class with a lap of 1m28.980s in the No. 4 Corvette C8.R. Corvette Racing is making its return to the roads in the island park after an absence of 13 years.
Fast time in GT Daytona also changed in the final minute, as Mario Farnbacher went to the top by running 1m30.932s in the No. 76 Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3. Second was Richard Heistand in the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 LMS, +0.353s, followed by Jack Hawksworth, +0.427s in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. The 12 GTD cars were separated by 0.427s, with the class running its second race counting for Sprint Cup points.
In the lone incident, Madison Snow went off track in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Total Lubricants Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and dropped plenty of oil, resulting in a nine-minute red-flag stoppage. The car was fourth fastest in GTD with co-driver Bryan Sellers at the wheel.
UP NEXT: Practice 2 takes the green flag at noon ET, a 1h25m session in split groups. Qualifying then follows at 3:30 p.m.
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