Acura and Porsche battled for bragging rights in the first practice session of the Motul Course de Monterey for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The two Penske Porsche Motorsports 963s and the two Acura ARX-06s traded fast laps and ended up alternating at the top of the time sheet.
Matt Campbell posted the fast time of 1m16.703s, good for an average speed of 105.04mph around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Colin Braun was second in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura, 0.316s off Campbell’s best. Mathieu Jaminet was third at 1m17.115s in the No. 6 PPM 963, and Ricky Taylor completed the sequence in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura.
Pipo Derani was the best of the rest in the No. 31 Cadillac Racing by Action Express Racing V-Series.R, followed by the two BMWs. The top eight GTP cars were within a second.
Two of the GTP cars didn’t get much running in the session. Sebastien Bourdais crashed the No. 01 Cadillac in Turn 6, getting loose under braking as the right side tires of the V-Series.R ran over the freshly painted curbing. He caught the car, but too late, and it nosed into the tires, bringing out the first of two red flags during the session. The Ganassi crew quickly had the car in the garage and began work, the car possibly needing a new floor.
JDC-Miller Motorsports’ new Porsche 963 spent most of the session on jackstands in the pits, only doing single out-in laps, until the end. Mike Rockenfeller finally completed some consecutive laps in the final 10 minutes, with a best of 1m19.563s.
The LMP2 cars, making their first appearance since Sebring, were nearly in the same second as the fastest GTP time, Louis Deletraz taking the top spot for Tower Motorsports in the No. 8 ORECA at 1m17.897s. Deletraz put half a second on the rest of the field, Ben Hanley turning a 1m18.439s in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, 0.121s ahead of Ryan Dalziel in the No. 18 Era Motorsports entry.