Lexus, Corvette Lead Opening Practice Sessions at Lime Rock Park
Images and words by Matthew Boyce
Vasser Sullivan Racing and Corvette Racing led the GT-only field during the first two practice sessions of the IMSA WeatherTech SporsCar Championship FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park Friday.
In the first session, Aaron Telitz piloted his No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 to the top of the time charts with a lap of 51.762 seconds. The lap was only 0.059 seconds ahead of the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Antonio Garcia. Close times were prevelant across the entire GT field, as 19 of the 20 cars entered ran times within a second of each other. The only car outside of that 1 second mark was the No. 94 Andretti Autosport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 which brought up the rear of the field, but was only two tenths off the 19th place car.
Loris Spinelli put his No. 78 Forte Racing by US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 GTD entry third on the time charts, while the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Madison Snow managed to clock the fourth best time of the session. The Paul Miller Racing entry currently leads the GTD standings. Rounding out the top five overall was the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Mikael Grenier.
In the second session of the day, Corvette Racing topped the charts with the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Antonio Garcia. Garcia layed down a lap of 51.029 seconds, which was almost a second clear of the top time set in the morning session. Behind Garcia was the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth who fell short of the top time by 0.126 seconds. Third in the session was the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Pilet ahead of the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon.
Rounding out the top five in the session was the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn, with all of top five spots going to GTD-Pro entries. The first GTD entry on the practice sheets was the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff who ended up sixth overall. Second in GTD was the No. 78 Forte Racing by US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Misha Goikhberg who ran a lap 0.114 seconds behind the McLaren. Rounding out the top three in GTD was the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Robby Foley.
No major incidents occurred in either session, and the only red flag in either session was flown during the early minutes of the second session, as a piece of debris came off an unknown car which halted the session.
Qualifying is set for this evening at 5:40 p.m. EDT with live coverage on IMSA.tv and Peacock.
Opening session results: http://results.imsa.com/Results/23_2023/14_Lime%20Rock%20Park/01_IMSA%20WeatherTech%20SportsCar%20Championship/202307211145_Practice%201/03_Results_Practice%201.PDF
Afternoon session results: http://results.imsa.com/Results/23_2023/14_Lime%20Rock%20Park/01_IMSA%20WeatherTech%20SportsCar%20Championship/202307211445_Practice%202/03_Results_Practice%202.PDF
