More Muscle: Luhr Quickest in Opening Road America Practice
Luhr and Graf have won the last five ALMS races, and the Muscle Milk car also was quickest in Thursday’s test session. Friday, Luhr went 2.604 seconds faster than Guy Smith in the No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda coupe. Eric Lux was third in P1 in another Dyson prototype at 1:57.560 (123.961 mph).
Flying Lizard Motorsports was the fastest GT team for the second straight day. Jörg Bergmeister posted a time of 2:05.726 (115.090 mph) in the No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR he drives with Patrick Long. Like Muscle Milk, the Lizards led GT testing Thursday. As was the case a day earlier, Corvette Racing’s No. 4 Corvette C6 ZR1 was second in class. Tommy Milner set a lap of 2:05.876 (115.771 mph) Friday.
Jan Magnussen was third-quickest in a second factory Corvette at 2:05.898 (115.751 mph).
Christophe Bouchut’s lap of 1:56.426 (125.168 mph) was good enough for Level 5 Motorsports to take the top spot in P2. The No. 055 HPD ARX-03b was 0.215 seconds quicker than Martin Plowman’s Conquest Endurance No. 37 Morgan-Nissan. Luis Diaz was another 0.423 seconds back in the No. 95 Level 5 HPD.
CORE autosport’s Colin Braun set the pace in Prototype Challenge with a lap of 1:58.185 (123.305 mph) in the team’s No. 05 ORECA FLM09. He was 0.923 seconds clear of Merchant Services Racing’s Kyle Marcelli in the No. 8 entry.
In GT Challenge, Spencer Pumpelly was the quickest driver thanks to a lap of 2:13.546 (109.122 mph) in TRG’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. He was 0.134 seconds clear of Jeroen Bleekemolen – last year’s class winner at Road America – for Alex Job Racing. The top four cars were within 0.328 seconds.
The second practice session is set for 2:25 p.m. CT with qualifying scheduled for 3:35 p.m.