Smith leads opening ALMS practice

Guy Smith

Guy Smith’s name will go down in the record book as the driver who set the fastest time in the first practice session at the Baltimore Grand Prix for the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr¢n. The British driver posted a 1:31.202 (80.525 mph) lap in Dyson Racing’s Mazda-powered Lola around the 2.1-mile, 12-turn street circuit through Baltimore.

Smith was 0.599 seconds quicker than Intersport Racing’s Kyle Marcelli, the quickest of the LMP Challenge cars at 1:31.801 (79.999 mph). The young Canadian was only 0.227 seconds clear of CORE autosport’s Gunnar Jeannette in another LMPC entry.

Steven Kane was fourth overall and second in LMP1 for Oryx Dyson Racing at 1:32.562 (79.341 mph).

Team Falken Tire’s Wolf Henzler was the fastest GT driver in his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR entry at 1:34.333 (77.852 mph). The German, who won two races ago with Bryan Sellers at Mid-Ohio, was 0.381 seconds better than Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen and 0.474 seconds ahead of BMW Team RLL’s Joey Hand.

Jeroen Bleekemolen went fastest for Black Swan Racing in GT Challenge. Driving a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, his lap of 1:38.877 (74.274 mph) was 0.953 seconds quicker than Alex Job Racing’s Leh Keen. Craig Stanton was third in class for Magnus Racing at 1:40.242 (73.263 mph).

The second ALMS practice session is set for 6:05 to 6:20 p.m. GT qualifying will start at 6:25 p.m., and prototype qualifying at 6:45 p.m.