Aitken puts No.31 Whelen Cadillac on top in third Sebring practice

The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac paced the third and final practice session tonight at Sebring ahead of the 12 Hours on Saturday. Jack Aitken was the pacesetter, putting a V-Series.R atop the timing screens for the first time this week after a 1m49.125s with 42 minutes remaining on the clock.

“The car did feel a lot better in that night session, so I’m hoping we can carry those changes through, and it will be good in the last hour of the race and challenge for the victory,” he said after the session.

“It’s really hard to say if it translates to qualifying because Sebring more than other tracks changes by the hour. So this is our best shot at dialing the car in for the race finish, and this afternoon was our best shot looking for the qualifying tomorrow.

“There’s no guarantee it’s going to be the same track conditions. We have to take it as it comes and be prepared.”

The top three were completed by the two Acura MSR ARX-06s, with the No. 93 ahead of the No. 60. After multiple improvements, Nick Yelloly put the No. 93 second with a 1m49.250s and Tom Blomqvist ran fastest in the sister car with a 1m49.343s.

The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 ended up fourth, 0.269s off the benchmark time, while the No. 24 was the quickest BMW for RLL and claimed fifth in the rankings.

While the lap times were not as fast as the second session earlier in the day, when Sheldon van der Linde set a 1m47.884s to lead the way, they may prove to be significant.

With the race on Saturday finishing at night, setting up a car to show pace when the sun goes down is key. Is it advantage Cadillac? We won’t have to wait too much longer to find out.

Further down the order in GTP the Lamborghini SC63 slotted in 10th after completing 34 laps, while the Aston Martin Valkyrie ended up 12th and 1.6 seconds off the No. 31’s time with 33 tours in the books.

A 1m50.496s from Mikkel Jensen topped LMP2. The Dane’s best time for TDS Racing put the No. 11 ORECA faster than three GTP cars, and 0.6s quicker than anyone else in the class.

The No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA took second with a 1m51.140s at the endste of the session from Paul Di Resta. This pushed the FP2-topping No. 88 AF Corse 07 to third.

Winward Racing’s No. 57 Mercedes ran fastest in the GTD ranks, with Philip Ellis reeling off a 2m00.538s early in the 90-minute night session. The quickest GTD Pro class entry – the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche – was two-tenths shy after Laurin Heinrich’s best effort.

Maxi Goetz put the No. 32 Korthoff Competition AMG second in GTD while the two Corvettes would end the night second and third in GTD Pro with 2m00.9s.

There were three red flags. The first was called when the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari of Cedric Sbirrazzuoli stopped on track. The Conquest Ferrari, as a result of its issue, didn’t set a single competitive time.

The second came when debris was found on the track between Turns 1 and 3 and the final stoppage occurred in the final 20 minutes when Aaron Telitz pulled off at the entrance to Turn 3 in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.

There was better news elsewhere in the GTD ranks for Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 45 Lamborghini Huracan. The team managed to get the car back out for the running after it was forced to skip practice two in order to repair the car fully following Daniel Formal’s big off in FP1.

“I’m completely fine, everyone from IMSA took great care of me,” Formal told IMSA Radio during the session.

“I just feel so bad for the team, it was a mistake I shouldn’t make. I’ve been with the team a long time; it’s my first error, so there’s a lot of emotion. We skipped out of Practice 2 to make sure the car was perfect.”

The No. 45 crew completed 31 laps in the session, with a minor excursion off-track and over the grass for Graham Doyle the only hiccup.

IMSA WeatherTech action continues tomorrow with Qualifying at 11:25 local.

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