Derani, Extreme Speed Motorsports Top Sunday Morning Warmup

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer

ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — After a fiery start to Friday practice, the No. 22 Nissan DPi of Extreme Speed Motorsports was top of the time sheet in Sunday morning warmup ahead of the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.

Pipo Derani went around the 4.048 mile road course with a fast lap of 1 minute, 53.030 seconds for an average speed of 128.928 mph. Second fastest was the No. 7 Acura Team Penske entry of Ricky Taylor, just .008 seconds behind Derani.

Further down the field, Antonio Garcia took the No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R around in a lap of 2 minute, 4.597 seconds to lead GT Le Mans over the No. 67 Ford GT of Richard Westbrook while in GT Daytona, Jorg Bergmeister led in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R ahead of the No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Andy Lally.

It was not a drama-free warmup. The No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth had a crash during warmup and Team 3GT decided to withdraw the car after not having enough time to fix the damage before the 1:35 p.m. CT start.

Seven cars skipped the morning warmup session including both Mazda DPi entries, the Nos. 5 and 10 Cadillac DPi entries, the No. 54 CORE Autosport LMP2, the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 and the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3.