BMW to the fore in opening Long Beach IMSA practice

BMW M Team RLL finished 1-2 in the first practice for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Long Beach, on a cool morning that started under a light fog cover which broke up as the 60-minute session progressed.

The No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor led most of the morning session, but with 10 minutes to go, he was surpassed by the No. 25 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde. The South African's best time was a 1m13.241s, two-tenths quicker than the fastest time set in last year's first practice of the weekend.

The younger Vanthoor's 1m13.377s would be good enough for second place when the red flag came out with less than five minutes left. Jordan Taylor went off at Turn 1 -- not the first GTP car to find the runoff areas late in the session, as even session leader Van der Linde went off at Turn 9.

Practice resumed without enough time for the GTP teams to make improvements, so the two BMWs remained ahead of the two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s -- the No. 6 of Mathieu Jaminet, and the No. 7 of Nick Tandy, in third and fourth.

Nick Yelloly was fifth quickest in the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, followed by Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R in sixth. 2.5 seconds covered the 11-car field down to the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie.

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AO Racing and Rexy's GTD cameo appearance began strong. Laurens Vanthoor set the fastest time in the No. 177 Porsche 911 GT3 R, clocking in with a 1m18.584s to go two-tenths up on the field.

Defending Long Beach GTD winner Parker Thompson was second fastest in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, followed by Sebring winner Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

DXDT Racing's weekend got off to a great start as well. Robert Wickens completed 13 trouble-free laps around the Long Beach street circuit, his first racing at the track since 2018.

Co-driver Tommy Milner put the car up to fourth in GTD with his best time of 1m19.023s, while Wickens' best lap was within a second and a half of his co-driver's -- with more time for the Canadian driver to find more pace.

Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus completed the top five ahead of Elliott Skeer in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

IMSA WeatherTech practice continues this afternoon at 1:00pm PT.