Bamber, Skeen lead opening Detroit IMSA practice

Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 02 Cadillac DPI-V.R. opened the IMSA WeatherTech Championship Series weekend in Detroit by topping Friday’s opening practice session with a time of 1m20.178s from Earl Bamber. While the circuit is expected to suit the Cadillacs, the pair of Acura ARX-05c entries ended the session second and third after late flyers from Ricky Taylor and Oliver Jarvis.

Taylor was 0.146s behind Bamber, and there was a further gap of 0.550s to Jarvis in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05c.

This morning’s practice session was the first time cars were on track this weekend, and times progressively dropped as drivers got more comfortable and the track cleaned.

Olivier Pla, meanwhile, was coming to grips with his new team. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. completed a session-high 50 laps, with Pla behind the wheel for 27 of them. That car ended the practice session in fourth with a time of 1m21.069s from Pla.

The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Renger Van Der Zande and Sebastian Bourdais ended the session in fifth.

In GT Daytona, a surprise name emerged at the top of the charts. The No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mike Skeen (pictured above) was quickest with a time of 1m30.759s. Aaron Telitz in the No. 12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC-F GT3 was just 0.024s behind Skeen. Another 0.082s behind Telitz was Aidan Read in the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX GT3.

The session was red-flagged briefly for repairs to the track after a chunk of concrete became dislodged. There were no major incidents in the session.

RESULTS

UP NEXT: Practice 2, 12:05 p.m. ET