Van der Linde Quickest in Opening Long Beach Practice

Photo: Perry Nelson/IMSA

Sheldon van der Linde laid down the quickest time of the opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice on the streets of Long Beach, leading a BMW M Team RLL 1-2.

The South African, in his Long Beach debut, reeled off a chart-topping 1:13.241 lap time in the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 late in the 60-minute session to edge out the sister No. 24 entry driven by fellow Long Beach rookie Dries Vanthoor.

Van der Linde’s time came moments before he had an incident in Turn 9, but did manage to bring the car back to pit lane.

The session saw a brief red flag with 5 minutes to go due to debris, presumably from the No. 25 BMW.

Renger van der Zande made a late-session improvement to third on the time charts in the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, followed by the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and teammate Nick Tandy in the No. 7 entry.

Earl Bamber was sixth in the best of the Cadillac V-Series.Rs.

GTD was topped by the No. 177 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurens Vanthoor, ahead of the the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 driven by Parker Thompson.

Philip Ellis posted the third quickest time in class, ahead of Tommy Milner’s DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R that features the GTD class debut of Robert Wickens this weekend.

In addition to van der Linde’s off and an drive into the Turn 1 run-off area for the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Jordan Taylor in Turn 1, the only other notable issue came when Roman De Angelis also ran into the Turn 1 runoff in his Aston Martin Valkyrie earlier in the session

The Canadian and was handed a drive-through penalty for “improper runoff procedure.”

The second and final practice session is scheduled for a 1 p.m. PST start time.

RESULTS: Practice 1