Van der Zande keeps Cadillac on top in Petit Le Mans night practice

Like Sebring, Motul Petit Le Mans ends in the dark. So in the nighttime when temperatures drop is when the car needs to be at its best if a team wants the opportunity to win. Thus the 1h30m night practice session, the final practice before qualifying tomorrow afternoon, is critical.

“I think this is a telltale session of what everybody really has,” said Bryan Sellers, about to run his final race for Paul Miller Racing in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3. “You'll see people do fuel runs, quali sims… one extra opportunity see if they can squeeze a little bit more lap time out. But most importantly, what you'll see at the end of this session is where everyone's final race pace is.

"And as we all know, it ends at night, so it's the most important portion of the race. It's always so different here how the car evolves through the day, and then how it changes at night. So what you have to make sure is that you don't have this stellar race car in the heat and come to the cooler temperatures and are nowhere. So everyone will take this time to kind of evaluate and see how the car responds to that.”

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If the times from the session are any guide, the No. 01 Cadillac Racing team has a V-Series.R that is good in all conditions, as the team has both the best time of the day, and the quickest time in the night session – a 1m11.626s (127.66mph) set by Renger van der Zande. That was 0.362s better than Andrea Caldarelli in the No. 63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63, which seems to respond well to cooler conditions if this time and Romain Grosjean's performance in the rain at Indianapolis are indicative.

The two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s occupied the next two spots, Felipe Nasr's 1m11.997 in the No. 7 was 0.084s better than Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6. Ricky Taylor completed the top five in GTP in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06.

Ben Hanley had the top time in LMP2, a 1m13.178s (124.96mph) lap in the No. 2 United Autosports ORECA to better Tom Dillmann in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry by 0.104s. Mikkel Jensen put the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA in third. The top six cars in LMP2 were within 0.2s.

It was a GTD car leading all the GT cars in the session, thanks to Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3. His 1m19.195s (115.46mph) bettered all the GTD and GTD PRO runners, headed by Laurin Heinrich, getting his first night laps around Road Atlanta. Heinrich had a 1m19.273s lap in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R.

Madison Snow's 1m19.317s time in the No. 1 BMW put him second in GTD PRO, with Nicky Catsburg third, 0.060s back in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R. Ben Barnicoat (No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3) and Marvin Kirchhöfer (No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720s GT3 Evo) completed the top five in GTD PRO.

Klaus Bachler put the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R second in GTD at 1m19.430s, 0.040s quicker than Simon Mann in the No. 21 Af Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. The top five in GTD were rounded out by Scott Andrews in the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 and Parker Thompson in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus.

The session was interrupted by two red flags, the first a 13-minute stoppage for a Turn 4 collision between Daniel Juncadella in the No. 3 Corvette and Loris Spinelli in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 that left both cars disabled. The second was a short one for a No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 spin-and-stall by Romain Grosjean only five minutes after the previous red flag period ended.

Practice is done, and the teams have until 3:25 p.m ET Friday to prepare for the qualifying session.

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