Amid a flurry of new-tired times at the end of the session, Blomqvist’s 1m47.049s was just 0.026s faster than Sebastien Bourdais in Chip Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac.
GTP
Filipe Albuquerque’s fastest time of 1m48.303s from FP1 in the Wayne Taylor Racing-Andretti Acura ARX-06 was immediately eclipsed by Alexander Sims in the Action Express-run Cadillac V-Series.R, who turned 1m47.732s and then 1m47.659s straight out of the box. Matt Campbell was three tenths off that in the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, lapping in 1m47.974s, ahead of the Acuras of Ricky Taylor (WTR) and Colin Braun (MSR Acura) that remained in the 1m48s bracket to begin with.
AXR’s day went from good to bad, as Jack Aitken locked up and nosed the #31 into the tires at Turn 3, causing a red flag. After the resumption, Taylor unleashed 1m47.378s to wrest P1 away.
The times came thick and fast at the end of the session, as Blomqvist took the top spot with 1m47.049s. Bourdais snatched P2 in his CGR Cadillac with 1m47.075s, just 0.026s off Blomqvist.
Louis Deletraz then grabbed third spot for WTR with a last-gasp 1m47.197s. Pipo Derani, in the repaired AXR Caddy, was fourth quickest on 1m47.311s, but aborted a far quicker final lap, ahead of the Porsches of Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, and the BMWs of Sheldon van der Linde and Philipp Eng.
The #25 BMW needed a new torque sensor, that was unrelated to its crash in FP1, and only ran at the end of the session.
LMP2
In the all-ORECA 07 class, Christian Rasmussen set the early pace for Era Motorsport, unleashing a blistering series of laps that ended with 1m50.506s, ahead of Alex Quinn (PR1 Mathiasen) and IndyCar racer Devlin DeFrancesco for Rick Ware Racing.
Nobody could beat that time, with Nolan Siegel being second quickest for Crowdstrike by APR, ahead of Paul-Loup Chatin (PR1 Mathiasen) and ex-F1 racer Giedo van der Garde’s TDS car.
LMP3
Nico Pino was the pacemaker for Sean Creech Motorsport with a lap of 1m57.020s in his Ligier JS P320. Then Dakota Dickerson (Jr III Racing Ligier) took P1 away with 1m56.607s, just 0.032s faster than Nico Varrone’s AWA-run Duqueine D08.
The session was halted briefly around the halfway point, as Josh Burdon stopped in his Riley-run Ligier. Once mended, Burdon rejoined and set the fastest time of the session so far with 1m56.564s.
Dickerson wouldn’t be denied, however, and grabbed the top spot back with 1m56.382s.
#57 Winward Racing, Mercedes AMG GT3, GTD: Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Indy Dontje
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
GTD Pro / GTD
As in FP1, the 992-shape Porsches were back in the hunt here after being way off pace in January’s Daytona 24 Hours. Alec Udell set the initial benchmark with 2m01.875s in the Kellymoss with Riley-run 911 GT3 R.
Aaron Telitz took over at the top in Vasser Sullivan’s #12 Lexus RC F, lapping in 2m01.373s, which in turn was eclipsed by Russell Ward’s Winward Racing Mercedes on 2m01.218s. Seb Priaulx was second fastest in AO Racing’s Porsche, just 0.034s off Ward’s pace.
Tommy Milner was fastest GTD Pro runner for Corvette Racing with a lap of 2m01.260s.
Practice 3, which is held in the dark, starts at 19:45 and runs to 21:15 local time.
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