Audi strong early at Road America

Not surprisingly, Audi flexed its diesel-powered muscles early at Road America with the quickest time in Thursday’s test session for the Generac 500 presented by Time Warner Cable. The No. 2 Audi R10 TDI of Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner posted a lap of 1:46.016 (134.913 mph) in preparation for Saturday’s four-hour race.

Audi leads the Penske Porsche around the 4-mile Road America circuit

The Audi held off a slew of LMP2 challengers from Porsche and Acura. Penske Racing’s first Porsche RS Spyder of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard at 1:48.654 (134.121 mph), good enough to put the defending overall race winners second overall. Next was the Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b of Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz at 1:50.123 (132.332 mph). The second Penske Porsche of Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long was third in P2 and fourth overall, just 0.003 seconds behind the Lowe’s Acura.

One of Intersport Racing’s two Lola B06/10-AER prototypes sat third in P1. The car of Ryan Lewis, John Faulkner and Gregor Fisken posted a time of 1:55.459 (126.216 mph).

Corvette C6.R

In GT1, Corvette Racing’s No. 4 Corvette C6.R of Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta led in class with a time of 2:03.147 (118.337 mph). It was good enough for a 0.708-second advantage over the sister car of Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen. Bell Motorsports’ Aston Martin DBR9, back after a heavy crash in early July at Lime Rock, was third at 2:07.610 (114.198 mph).

The top two cars in GT2 also sit first and second in the class championship. Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler went quickest in Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with a time of 2:07.610 (114.198 mph), nearly a half-second ahead of Tafel Racing’s Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher in the No. 71 Ferrari F430 GT.

Third in class was the rapidly improving Panoz Esperante GTLM of Panoz Team PTG’s Tommy Milner, Tom Sutherland and Joey Hand. The Esperante turned in a time of 2:08.640 (113.284 mph).