Sebastien Bourdais Quickest In Petit Le Mans Practice

In the closing minutes of the second practice session Thursday (Sept. 29), Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais turned in a lap at 132.445 mph to lead the pack in practice for the 25th annual Motul Petit Le Mans.  It capped off a day in which the Cadillacs showed strength.

Practice No. 1

Teams had to deal with a fair amount of wind Thursday morning for the opening practice session for the Motul Petit Le Mans.  When the session was complete, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Earl Bamber was fastest overall with a lap at 131.411 mph.

Bamber’s lap was a third of a second faster than the Acura of Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist.  Bourdais was third, then Action Express Racing teammates Pipo Derani and Kamui Kobayashi.

LMP2 saw Tower Motorsport’s Louis Deletraz lead the way with a lap at 128.211 mph, good for eighth overall.  Deletraz’s lap was .188 seconds faster than DragonSpeed’s Sebastian Montoya.  Era Motorsport’s Ryan Dalziel was third fastest, less than three-tenths off of Deletraz.  PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Tristan Nunez and High Class Racing’s Anders Fjordbach were fourth and fifth.

In LMP3, CORE autosport’s Colin Braun was fastest with a lap at 120.831 mph, 14th overall.  Braun’s lap was a mere .015 seconds faster than Riley Motorsports’ Felipe Fraga.  Jr III Racing’s Garret Grist was a full second behind Fraga in third, then Andrew Wojteczko Autosport’s Matt Bell and Andretti Autosport’s Gabby Chaves.

In the GT ranks, VasserSullivan’s Jack Hawksworth was fastest of all GT runners and quickest in GTD Pro with a lap at 115.187 mph, good for 22nd overall.  Hawksworth’s lap was .426 seconds faster than the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Matt Campbell.  Risi Competizione’s Daniel Serra was third in his Ferrari, then BMW M Team RLL’s John Edwards and Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia.

Paul Miller Racing’s Bryan Sellers was quickest in GTD with a lap at 115.019 mph, second of all GT drivers and .116 seconds slower than Hawksworth.  His lap was nine-hundredths of a second quicker than NTe Sport’s Jaden Conwright in his Lamborghini.  Winward Racing’s Russell Ward was third, then VasserSullivan’s Frankie Montecalvo and Wright Motorsports’ Jan Heylen.

There was one red flag period during the 90-minute session.  Just past the one-hour mark, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Scott Huffaker spun in the Esses and backed into the tire barrier.  He was able to walk away, but the No. 52…