Lime Rock: Series practice one report
GRAF, CYTOSPORT LEAD THE WAY AT DAMP LIME ROCK Porsche RS Spyder just ahead of Brabham in PHR prototype Klaus Graf set the quickest time in a damp first practice for the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix on Friday morning, a lap of 1:02.289 ...
GRAF, CYTOSPORT LEAD THE WAY AT DAMP LIME ROCK
Porsche RS Spyder just ahead of Brabham in PHR prototype
Klaus Graf set the quickest time in a damp first practice for the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix on Friday morning, a lap of 1:02.289 (86.693 mph) in Muscle Milk Team CytoSport's Porsche RS Spyder. Graf outpaced Patrón Highcroft Racing's David Brabham by just 0.069 seconds around the wet 1.5-mile, 10-turn Lime Rock Park circuit.
Graf and team owner Greg Pickett will share the Porsche prototype, which hasn't won at race at Lime Rock since 2007. The CytoSport entry only did seven laps on the session as rain fell more steady the longer the session went.
Brabham and Simon Pagenaud are on a three-race winning streak in PHR's HPD ARX-01c. They each also are past overall winners at the track - Brabham in 2008 and Pagenaud last year.
Drayson Racing's Jonny Cocker was third overall at 1:03.417 (85.151 mph) in the Judd-powered Lola B09/60 that he will drive with team owner Paul Drayson.
Elton Julian was the quickest LMP Challenge driver with a lap of 1:03.955 (84.434 mph) in Green Earth Team Gunnar's ORECA FLM09. The class is racing at Lime Rock for the first time. Julian, driving with Gunnar Jeannette, was 0.593 seconds better than Level 5 Motorsports' Christophe Bouchut. He and team owner Scott Tucker have won three of four races this year and lead the class championship.
Tom Papadopoulos in PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports' entry sat third in class at 1:05.694 (82.199 mph). He will drive with Alex Figge.
Risi Competizione's two Ferrari F430 GTs paced the GT class with Jaime Melo's lap of 1:04.008 (84.364 mph) just 0.237 seconds quicker than Mika Salo. Melo - driving with Gimmi Bruni - was a teammate of Salo for three years at Risi although the pairing never won at Lime Rock.
Corvette Racing's Oliver Gavin was third in class at 1:04.485 (83.740 mph). The top five cars in class were within 0.815 seconds of each other.
Jeroen Bleekemolen was quickest in GT Challenge for Black Swan Racing with a best lap of 1:07.994 (79.419 mph) in BSR's Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry. He and team owner Tim Pappas are on a two-race winning streak in the class, and Bleekemolen was 0.359 seconds ahead of TRG's Andy Lally; he will drive with Henri Richard.
The next practice session is set for 3 p.m. ET. Qualifying will be shown live at 4 p.m. on americanlemans.com.
-source: alms
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