Dyson Porsche fastest in warm-up
The Dyson Porsche will start second overall with Chris Dyson at the wheel when the green flag falls at 3 p.m. ET. He will be alongside the Penske Motorsports Porsche of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas.
“Chris tested here on Tuesday and was fastest," Smith said. “We tested before the Salt Lake race and last month at Elkhart Lake and Mid-Ohio and this highlights the hard work the team has been putting in. The car is quite fun to drive which is reflected in the lap times."
Second in the warm-up was another local team, Highcroft Racing from nearby Danbury, Conn. Stefan Johansson turned in a lap of 45.516 behind the wheel of the team’s Acura ARX. The other Penske Porsche of Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe was 0.135 seconds behind Smith.
The top eight cars were in the LMP2 class. The fastest P1 car was the diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI of defending race winners Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish. Capello’s best lap was a 46.579 that still left him more than a second behind the leading Porsche. Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner in the second R10 TDI, which is making its debut at Lime Rock, was at 46.926.
Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette C6.R was quickest in GT1 with a lap of 50.802. He was 0.169 seconds ahead of Corvette Racing teammates Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta, two-time Lime Rock winners.
In GT2, class pole-sitter Tomas Enge was quickest again in Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing’s Ferrari. The Czech star put in a lap of 53.185 to put him 0.05 seconds ahead of the Risi Competizione Ferrari of Jamie Melo and Mika Salo. Next was the Panoz Esperante GTLM of Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand for Panoz Team PTG at 53.336.