St. Pete: Series practice one report

de FERRAN A QUICK STUDY AT ST. PETERSBURG

Gil de Ferran turned in the quickest time in the first practice for the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg on Friday morning, a session that started dry but ended wet and windy. De Ferran, driver and owner of the de Ferran Motorsports Acura ARX-02a, turned his best time of 1:06.125, about seven minutes before the skies opened up.

De Ferran is driving with Simon Pagenaud in the first street race for the new Acura prototype, which is expected to do well with an innovative design that maximizes downforce and grip with its four "rear" tires on all corners.

David Brabham in the Patron Highcroft Racing Acura P1 was second in the session, just 0.618 seconds behind de Ferran. Teammate Scott Sharp had been fastest for a majority of the early portion in practice; the team finished third two years ago in P2 and second last season.

Adrian Fernandez was the fastest LMP2 driver, also in an Acura. His lap of 1:07.545 narrowly eclipsed Dyson Racing's Marino Franchitti by 0.274 seconds. Fernandez and Luis Diaz won in class at Sebring with their Acura ARX-01b; Franchitti is driving one of Dyson's Lola B09/86-Mazda closed-top coupes. Guy Smith, driving with Chris Dyson, was third in P2 at 1:07.857.

Chapman Ducote was third in P1, driving Intersport Racing's AER-powered Lola B06/10. Ducote, driving with Clint and Jon Field, was a 1:11.850.

Wolf Henzler was the fastest GT2 driver for Porsche and Farnbacher Loles Racing with a lap of 1:14.270. Henzler will drive the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Dirk Werner, the team hoping to rebound from a disappointing Sebring. The Porsche was 1.172 seconds quicker than the American-made Panoz Esperante GTLM of Panoz Team PTG's Dominik Farnbacher. He is driving with Ian James following the pairing's third-place podium finish at Sebring.

Flying Lizard Motorsports' Patrick Long was third in class at 1:15.512. He will drive a Porsche with Jorg Bergmeister.

-credit: alms