Acura picked up where it left off again at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Coming off consecutive wins and Motul Pole Awards in each of the past two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races at the historic circuit, the manufacturer set the pace Friday in opening practice for the Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship.
Filipe Albuquerque pushed the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 DPi around the demanding 2.238-mile road course in 1 minute, 14.880 seconds (107.595 mph) to head the 26-car field in the one-hour session. The time was 0.155 seconds quicker than the track qualifying record set by Albuquerque’s teammate, Ricky Taylor, in 2019.
Taylor won last year’s WeatherTech Raceway event with Helio Castroneves, on their way to capturing the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) championship with Acura Team Penske. Taylor and Albuquerque moved to Wayne Taylor Racing this season and have the No. 10 Acura atop the DPi standings.
Pipo Derani, who along with Felipe Nasr in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R have closed to within 41 points of the No. 10 Acura, was second in practice with a lap of 1:14.974 also under the official track record. Derani and Nasr have won each of the past two DPi races.
Other class leaders on Friday were:
Mikkel Jensen (No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07) in Le Mans Prototype 2, at 1:16.115 (0.702 seconds under the LMP2 qualifying standard);
Nick Tandy (No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R) in GT Le Mans, at 1:22.081; and Bill Auberlen (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3) in GT Daytona, at 1:24.630.
A second WeatherTech Championship practice begins at 11:45 a.m. ET Saturday. Qualifying to set the starting grid streams live on IMSA.com/TVLive beginning at 4 p.m. The two-hour, 40-minute race airs live at 4 p.m. Sunday on NBCSN, TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold, the NBC Sports App and IMSA Radio.
IMSA has updated its sporting regulations to reflect the definition of a manufacturer, which now states that the OEM must not only be recognized as an “IMSA Official Automotive Partner” but also have an “annual production of 2,500 or more vehicles for public consumption and public road use” in order to be eligible in the WeatherTech Championship. (reason for how the production C8 Z06 is being designed)
BMW is among five manufacturers that have committed to LMDh projects for WeatherTech Championship competition, along with Acura, Audi, Cadillac and Porsche. Dallara, one of four constructors eligible to produce LMDh chassis, also will supply the chassis for the Cadillac LMDh project.
