Deletraz leads a Cadillac lockout in opening IMSA practice at Laguna Seca

The black No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R led a Cadillac top three lockout in opening practice for the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

With less than 10 minutes remaining in the 90-minute practice, Louis Deletraz set a 1m14.443s to leap to the top of the timesheets and displace the sister No. 10 WTR Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque from the top spot. Albuquerque set a 1m14.893s late in the session to go second fastest, followed by Cadillac Whelen’s Jack Aitken, who beamed with confidence going into this afternoon’s session.

“We’re pretty happy wherever we go at the moment with the Evo package that we brought to the Cadillac,” said Aitken, who set a 1m15.026s early in the running and finished third in the session. “It’s performing well across the board. Laguna, traditionally, maybe has not been a place where we’ve had as many results as somewhere like Long Beach or Sebring, but we’re pretty happy with the performance at the moment. Going into this weekend, I think we’ve got as good a chance of winning here as we did at the previous tracks.

“I think every car in the field will have a chance this weekend, which can’t always be said. It’s going to be tough, but I think we have a good chance.”

Kévin Estre in the Apple Computer No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 set a 1m15.030s to go fourth quickest. Renger van der Zande was fifth in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06, and Laurin Heinrich was sixth in the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports 963.

Not far back was Roman de Angelis in the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie in eighth, while the two BMW M Team WRT cars were at the bottom of the GTP leaderboard, and Sheldon van der Linde ended the session with a quick skip through the gravel in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8.

As their GM counterparts did in GTP, the two Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.Rs locked out the top two in GTD Pro to start the weekend. Alexander Sims led the way in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette, with a 1m22.113s – only a tenth quicker than Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette. Jack Hawksworth was third in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, ahead of Neil Verhagen in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

And in GTD, Ferrari customer teams finished 1-2, led by the No. 70 Inception Racing 296 GT3. Frederik Schandorff went quickest in class by 0.011s, setting a 1m22.156s to go ahead of Albert Costa in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari (1m22.165s). Russell Ward timed in third in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, followed by Giacomo Altoè in the pink and green No. 81 DragonSpeed Corvette.

Practice 2 for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship starts tomorrow morning at 9:55 AM PT (local time), followed by Qualifying, which begins at 3:15 PM PT.

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