No. 24 BMW tops interrupted second practice at Road America

The No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 went fastest in second practice for the Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America, a session that was halted for several minutes after an incident along the front straightaway.

Marco Mapelli in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 moved towards the entrance of pit lane as the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07 of Benjamin Pedersen was coming in. Mapelli and Pedersen collided wheel-to-wheel, which sent the plaid Lamborghini off to the left and into a concrete barrier.

The impact knocked a wheel off the Pfaff Lamborghini, which was struck by the right-front of the No. 04 Crowdstrike by APR ORECA of George Kurtz. Kurtz would bring his car to a stop safely at the exit of pit lane, while Mapelli walked away from his crashed car unhurt.

A red flag for barrier repairs took just under 20 minutes before the session resumed. The Stewards found Mapelli responsible for the collision and causing the red flag, which will result in the No. 9 car losing its best time in Qualifying – if the car can be repaired in time to participate in Qualifying this afternoon at 4:40 PM CT.

Not long after the session resumed with 37 minutes to go, Nick Yelloly set the quickest GTP time in his No. 93 Acura, a 1m 49.682s, picking up where the No. 60 car left off during the first practice yesterday.

But just before the checkered flag, the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL car of Dries Vanthoor set a 1m49.676s, and edged out Yelloly by just six milliseconds to take the top spot in Practice #2, ahead of the No. 93 Acura.

Behind them was the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde, whose best time of 1m49.843s was the first lap under the one-minute, 50-second threshold this weekend.

Felipe Nasr went fourth-fastest in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, with Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R rounding out the top five.

The No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, which was second-fastest in Practice #1, could only go tenth-quickest this morning.

In LMP2, the Algarve Pro Racing crew repaired the damaged No. 04 ORECA with enough time for it to return to the track. Even better, Malthe Jakobsen set the quickest time in the class, a 1m52.823.

That would be enough to go ahead of his fellow Dane, Mikkel Jensen (No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA), by only 29 milliseconds. His TDS Racing co-driver Steven Thomas caused a brief red flag early in the session when he spun and stopped at turn six.

Dane Cameron was third-fastest in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA - and his co-driver PJ Hyett set the quickest time of all LMP2 Bronze drivers ahead of Qualifying. Inter Europol Competition's substitute driver Connor De Phillippi was fourth-fastest.

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports showed out at the top of GTD PRO, finishing first and third. The best lap was set by the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims (2m04.247s), with the No. 4 of Tommy Milner in third place.

In between them was the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 in second, then some distance to the fourth-fastest No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3.

The No. 9 Pfaff Lamborghini finished with the fifth-best time in class.

In GTD, Onofrio Triarsi set the best time in his No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, at 2m04.866s.

Danny Formal was second quickest in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghhini, and Matthew Bell was third in the No. 13 AWA Corvette. Tom Gamble rounded out the top four in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Robert Wickens was 10th in GTD aboard his hand-controlled No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette.

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