Nissan DPi driver Ryan Dalziel pipped Cadillac's Ricky Taylor to top the Friday timesheets for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship's visit to Laguna Seca.
Dalziel turned in a time of 1:18.026s to put the #2 Extreme Speed Motorsports-run Nissan 0.086 seconds ahead of the points-leading Wayne Taylor Racing DPi.
The top four fastest laps were set during the second of two sessions at the Monterey circuit, eclipsing Jordan Taylor's earlier benchmark of 1:18.462s.
Dalziel's ESM team-mate Pipo Derani finished the day third, four tenths off the pace of the sister Nissan, while Christian Fittipaldi slotted into fourth for the Action Express Cadillac squad.
Fittipaldi and team-mate Joao Barbosa are the main title challengers to Jordan and Ricky Taylor, who head into this weekend's penultimate round with a 26-point lead.
After a dominant start to the campaign, the Taylor brothers lost ground through incidents at Watkins Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, before claiming a restorative podium last time out at Road America.
Fittipaldi and Barbosa, meanwhile, are aiming to take as many points out of their title rivals as possible after two finishes outside the top five in the last two races.
In the GT Le Mans category, Ferrari set the pace with Toni Vilander recording the quickest time.
The Finn's 1:22.635s marker during the late afternoon run established a cushion of four tenths back to the BMW M6 driven by Alexander Sims.
Oliver Gavin sat the best-placed Corvette in third (+0.599s), while John Edwards lapped fourth in the second RLL-prepared BMW (+0.637s).
Rounding out the class top five was defending race winner Richard Westbrook, driving the #67 Ford GT entered by Chip Ganassi Racing.
Acura led the GT Daytona contingent thanks to a 1:25.253s lap from Oswaldo Negri Jr.
Class-by-class qualifying for Sunday's 2 hour 40 minute contest takes place on Saturday, September 23rd at 14:30 EDT.
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