Connor de Phillippi set the fastest time at the IMSA group test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with the BMW driver, in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, lapping the track in 1:14.655 in the final session of four over two days.
His teammate Jesse Krohn was second fastest in the sister #24 BMW, just over a tenth off. Third on the timesheets was Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, a further half-tenth off Krohn.
Earlier in the day Bourdais had been quickest in the third session of the test. Two Porsches were quickest on Friday, with Matt Cambpell topping the first session in the #7 Porsche 963, and young Tijmen van der Helm, behind the wheel of the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 quickest in the second session.
Acura, meanwhile, suffered from suspension troubles on the first day, with a part of the set up of both the #10 Wayne Taylor Acura ARX-06, and on the #60 Meyer Shank car, bending when it shouldn’t have been, according to an Acura representative. The manufacturer sourced a stronger part overnight, with the cars running on Saturday.
Wayne Taylor Racing driver Filipe Albuquerque told MotorsportWeek.com, that the team “sorted it [the suspension issue] out. Good improvement from the team, reacting in such a short
time. In the afternoon we did a lot of laps, and it was productive.”
Asked about driving at Indianapolis, the Portuguese driver said: “It’s cool. It’s really nice. It’s a fast track. Like a European track in a way, nice asphalt, good grip, wide. Everyone is pretty much on the limit, and we can see that on the lap times. Everyone is separated by so little. To put the perfect lap it hard. It’s not like the typical American track where you bounce around. It’s just different, but I like it a lot. It’s a different philosophy than the tracks than we’ve been running.”
The session was stopped in the final hour as the yellow JDC Miller Porsche crashed, with clean up taking 20 minutes.
This was an open group test session held in preparation for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s ‘Battle on the Bricks’ on September 14-15, its first return to the famous circuit since 2014.
Mikkel Jensen was quickest in LMP2 in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, with a time of 1:16.532. The fastest LMP3 was Matt Bell inm the #13 AWA Duqueine D08, setting a 1:21.290.
Over in GTD, Misha Goikhberg set the pace, the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 driver lapping the track in 1:24.192. The only GTD Pro-entered car was the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat. The car didn’t set a laptime in the fourth session, but in the third Hawksworth set a 1:24.553.
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