Oliver Jarvis and Mazda Team Joest topped the timing sheets in the first free practice session ahead of this weekend's IMSA Monterey Grand Prix. Jarvis set a time of 01:16:442 in the #77 Mazda RT-24P DPi, putting him 0.153s clear of Juan Pablo Montoya in the #6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05.
Meanwhile, the Balance of Performance adjustments for the Cadillacs seem to paying off, as Filipe Albuquerque was third in class in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-VR. He was followed by three more Cadillacs in the form of the #10 of Renger van der Zande (Wayne Taylor Racing), the #31 of Pipo Derani (Whelen Engineering) and the #85 of Tristan Vautier (JDC-Miller Motorsports), all of them less than half a second behind the fastest time.
The ten car-class was completed by the #7 Acura of Helio Castroneves, the #54 CORE Autosport Nissan of Colin Braun and the #86 JDC-Miller Cadillac of Simon Trummer, while Road America race winner Harry Tincknell brought up the rear in the #55 Mazda.
In GT Le Mans, Porsche noticably struggled. The two championship leading 911 RSRs were last in class, roughly two seconds behind the #67 Ford of Richard Westbrook, which went quickest in class with 01:22:548.
Westbrook outpaced the #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner by nearly three-tenths, with a third manufacturer in the top three as Jesse Krohn put the #24 BMW M8 GTE in third, 0.401s behind Westbrook. The #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen was fourth, ahead of Tom Blomqvist's #25 BMW and the #66 Ford of Joey Hand.
Paul Miller Racing set the pace in GT Daytona, with Brian Sellers's 01:25:248 in the #48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo a mere 0.023s faster than the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 of Toni Vilander. VIR race winner Jeroen Bleekemolen, back from his first WEC round, took third in the #33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3.
