The defending race-winning No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette Daytona Prototype led Friday’s opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Jordan Taylor led both of the one-hour sessions with a lap of 1:11.158 (124.4 mph), leading preparation for Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix (live, FS1, 11 a.m.).
Jordan, who will be joined by his brother Ricky in the two-hour, 40-minute race, downplayed his team’s advantage, with the track experiencing intermittent rain showers. The top six Prototypes were separated by just 1.010 seconds.
“We were quickest in both sessions, but that doesn’t mean much, because both were messy with rain coming in and out,” Jordan Taylor said. “We tried a few things on the car to make it quicker. It’s going to be a long race and a lot can happen, but today we relied on our experience with the limited amount of time.”
Coming off of a 1-2 finish in the recent Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, Action Express Racing took the next two positions on the charts. Christian Fittipaldi, who won at The Glen, was second with a lap of 1:11.345 (124.0 mph) in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP co-driven by Joao Barbosa, followed by Dane Cameron, 1:11.483 (123.8 mph) in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP co-driven by Eric Curran.
Bill Auberlen paced the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class, running 1:15.961 (116.5 mph) in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM co-driven by Dirk Werner. Corvette Racing took the next two positions. Tommy Milner ran 1:16.132 (116.2 mph) in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R co-driven by Oliver Gavin, with the No. 3 Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen next at 1:16.203 (116.1 mph).
“This is the best car that BMW has ever built to go on this track,” Auberlen said. “We started this year with a brand-new M6 GTLM, and these guys really learned all about it on the fast track like you couldn’t believe. BMW, the Rahal team, and everyone has really made an amazing car for this event.”
In GT Daytona (GTD), Andy Lally led both sessions, running the best lap of the day – 1:17.702 (113.9 mph) – in the afternoon session in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 co-driven by John Potter.
Seeking a third consecutive victory in Prototype Challenge (PC), Renger van der Zande unofficially broke the track record with a lap of 1:12.13 in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport ORECA FLM09 co-driven by Alex Popow.
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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