Cadillac, Corvette stay ahead in second Detroit IMSA practice

Cadillac Whelen and Corvette Racing remain the teams to beat in practice for the IMSA Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit, to the delight of the GM representatives in front of their worldwide headquarters.

Early on, Sheldon van der Linde led the way in the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8. His time of 1m06.911s was the first lap under the one-minute, seven-second threshold for the day, and he’d retain the lead as teams focused on their long-run pace.

The first 80 minutes proceeded with only minor incidents, as some cars went down the runoff areas in some corners before rejoining. Not so fortunate was Neil Verhagen, whose No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO hit the wall at Turn 9. That incident brought out a red flag, and the No. 1 car will lose its quickest lap in qualifying later today.

After the red flag was lifted, Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R took first place as he set a 1m06.895s with about 25 minutes to go, then a 1m06.724s on his next flying lap. Bamber found even further improvements, ending with a 1m06.412s set with 15 minutes to go.

In the closing minutes, the two BMW M Team WRT cars slotted into second and third place. Van der Linde in the No. 24 BMW set a 1m06.443s to lock down second place, ahead of a 1m06.532s from Marco Wittmann in the No. 25.

Louis Delétraz went fourth fastest in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, ahead of Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 in fifth, and Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, in sixth.

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ two cars finished 1-2 in GTD Pro, as Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R set a 1m10.109s to lead the way, followed by Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette. That gave Corvette the upper hand over Ford Racing through two practices, Frédéric Vervisch went fifth-quickest in the No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3.

Max Esterson was an impressive third quickest in the No. 59 RLL Team McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, and Chaz Mostert, making his IMSA street race debut, was fourth-fastest in the No. 15 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3.

Qualifying begins this evening at 4:50pm ET.

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