IMSA / Laguna Seca - FP1: The #10 Acura ARX-06 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti on top

The repaving of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca did its job, as expected. In Friday’s opening practice for the Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N, the fastest laps turned in each of the three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes eclipsed their respective track records.

➡️ The results are HERE.

Of course, a new standard may only be set in a qualifying session or the race, but the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and GTD teams all looked well on their way to making it official this weekend.

Filipe Albuquerque clocked the best overall and GTP lap – 1 minute, 14.434 seconds (108.240 mph) – in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06. That was three-tenths of a second better than the GTP record lap set by Matt Campell in a Porsche 963 last year and within a half-second of the series track record held by Albuquerque’s teammate Ricky Taylor in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class in 2022.

“The session went really, really well,” Albuquerque said. “I felt good in the car. Now it’s completely different. Last year, we struggled here but it’s almost like a completely new track. The new asphalt changes it completely, but I love it.

“I would say that this is one of the tracks that required new asphalt just because of more grip,” he added. “I really respect the bumps and things that we go to on each track, (but) this one was one of them that just was sliding so much in the past, it was not fun. It looked almost like rally crossing in a way and it’s not my favorite.”

Philipp Eng, in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, was just 0.019 seconds behind Albuquerque on the timesheet, with Mathieu Jaminet third in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963, 0.089 seconds from the top.

Both Cadillac GTPs were limited in running Friday for different reasons. The No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R missed much of the first half of the 90-minute session diagnosing and fixing a water leak, turning 22 laps. The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac only completed 14 laps before Jack Aitken went off course and into the tire wall at Turn 4. Aitken was uninjured.

“Practice was running quite well, but unfortunately coming into Turn 4 I had a little bit of a snap on the entry,” Aitken said. “I let the car recover a little bit, but it was out on the dust and I didn’t anticipate that it would lose grip that quickly and I was heading straight for the wall. I couldn’t do much about it.

“It doesn’t look like a terrible amount of damage, though it’s going to be a little bit longer day for the guys. I’m sure we’ll be back in action tomorrow. It’s just a shame to cause more work. I’m fine.”

The fresh pavement provided even more speed for the GT classes. Seb Priaulx pushed the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course in 1:21.182, nearly a full two seconds better than the GTD PRO record. Philip Ellis was tops in GTD with a 1:21.475 lap in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 that was more than two seconds quicker than his co-driver ran in the same car two years ago.