Yelloly leads 1-2 for Acura Meyer Shank in opening IMSA practice at Road America

Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s two cars finished 1-2 in first practice for the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America, led by the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly.

Conditions were cloudy, dry throughout, and cooler than yesterday when teams unloaded their cars for the weekend. About 20 minutes into the 90-minute practice session, Yelloly took the top spot in GTP with a lap of 1m52.197s, then improved to a 1m51.682s to secure P1 on the board.

In the final minutes, Yelloly went even quicker, finishing with a 1m51.008. Tom Blomqvist in the sister No. 60 MSR Acura slotted into second place with a 1m51.705s.

A late improvement from Louis Delétraz saw the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R (1m52.131s) shoot up to third place, ahead of the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche, which was fourth fastest with Laurin Heinrich behind the wheel.

Filipe Albuquerque was fifth quickest in the No. 10 WTR Cadillac, followed by Sheldon van der Linde in the Spider-Man-liveried No. 24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 in sixth, and GTP points leader Jack Aitken, who was seventh in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac.

United Autosports USA’s two cars looked strong on the LMP2 side; to start the weekend, Paul di Resta went fastest in the No. 22 ORECA 07-Gibson with a lap of 1m54.166s and Mikkel Jensen in the No. 2 United ORECA (1m54.502s) was third on the leaderboard. In between them, Dane Cameron was second fastest in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA (1m54.460s).

The No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen car (Harry Tincknell) and the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition car (Tom Dillmann) completed the top five in LMP2.

It was a strong first session for Manthey’s GTD Pro No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R, which lead the way with a 2m05.384s set by Thomas Preining in the last 15 minutes of the session.

Two Michelin Endurance Cup teams finished 1-2 in GTD Pro, as the No. 033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo set a 2m05.418s, in the hands of Riccardo Agostini.

Alexander Sims was third quickest in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, then in fourth was Harry King in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche. Ben Barker rounded out the top five in the No. 64 Ford Racing Mustang GT3. But championship leaders Paul Miller Racing and the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO were down in 10th place in class, beneath several top teams in the GTD class.

Speaking of GTD, Car Blanche’s plain white No. 068 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo is back in the class, and set the quickest time in practice when Valentin Hasse-Clot turned in a 2m05.491s. The Frenchman’s time was third quickest of all GT cars.

The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (Philip Ellis) went second, then Giacomo Altoè in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Corvette was third.

A pair of Ferraris, the No. 70 Inception Racing (Frederik Schandorff) and the No. 34 Conquest Racing (Albert Costa) 296 GT3 Evos, were fourth and fifth fastest.

Only one red flag interrupted today’s session: Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie lost control at Canada Corner and hit the tire barrier at the end of the runoff. As that happened, the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari suffered a massive right-front suspension failure when Robert Megennis traveled over the exit curb at Turn 5, forcing him to stop at the entry of Turn 6.

Ultimately, the red flag was deemed by race control to be caused by the No. 23 Aston Martin, which will lose its fastest time in qualifying tomorrow afternoon.
Before then, Practice 2 starts tomorrow morning at 9:50am local time.

RESULTS