INDIANAPOLIS — Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy picked up where they left off a year ago at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Jaminet topped the timing screens Friday in opening practice for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, lapping the 14-corner, 2.439-mile road course inside the iconic IMS oval in 1 minute, 16.138 seconds (115.321 mph) in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963.
That edged Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, whose best effort in the 90-minute session was clocked at 1:16.177 (115.262 mph).
Out front is where Tandy and Jaminet were when they departed IMS last September after winning the 2023 edition of the race in a 1-2 finish for the Porsche Penske team. They are off to a successful defense at an event that is not only important to the Penske organization as a whole, but vital to the No. 6 car’s championship aspirations.
They go into Indianapolis qualifying an even 100 points behind Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 entry with drivers Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr, who ran eighth fastest in this Friday’s opening practice.
“It’s a very important race for us on the No. 6 car side to try to get points for Porsche and to regain ground in the championship. We’re looking forward to the challenge,” Tandy said earlier this week in a conference call with reporters. “From Porsche’s point of view, the goal is going for a manufacturer’s championship. On a personal side, you want to have the chance to win the team and drivers (championships). And it’s still open.
“We haven’t been to Indianapolis this year (to test) but obviously the last time we went to IMS, the team finished 1-2,” he added. “We’ll take everything from last year, hope that it still works and go racing.”
Le Mans Prototype 2 was the only class in which times were faster than the benchmarks established last year in IMSA’s return to Indianapolis.
Like in GTP, the 2023 race-winning entry led practice, as Mikkel Jensen gapped the field by nearly half a second in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07 he shares with Steven Thomas and Hunter McElrea. His best lap was 1:17.368 (113.488 mph).
“I think I got a good clear lap, and probably some of the others didn’t,” said Jensen. “Traffic was everywhere, and I think traffic is playing a big role this weekend. With 56 cars and this short lap time, it’s a lot of traffic.”
Riccardo Agostini, who paced all GT-class entries (Grand Touring Daytona and Grand Touring Daytona Pro) in the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 (1:23.855, 104.709 mph), also expressed concern about how congestion could make Sunday’s six-hour race a chaotic affair. The Indianapolis race was lengthened from two hours, 40 minutes to six hours this year, making it a round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.
“I’m quite new in the series but it’s always good to be first, even if it’s practice,” Agostini said. “I expect quite a messy race, with a lot of overtaking. It’s not going to be easy and you need to be quite smart to let the cars by at the right moment without losing too much time.”
Marvin Kirchhofer was the fastest GTD PRO runner in the opening practice at 1:24.030 (104.490 mph) in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.
The session was briefly red-flagged when the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 stalled on track and with electrical issues. A second short stoppage allowed IMSA to clear debris from a bump between Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R of the GTD PRO class and the GTP-class No. 5 Proton Competition Mustang Sampling Porsche 963 driven by Alessio Picariello.