Tandy's Porsche fastest in final Friday Lime Rock practice

Image by LePage/LAT


share
tweet
email
By: J.J. O'Malley | 2 hours ago


The Porsche GT team went 1-2 in in Friday’s third IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT practice session for the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. Tandy turned a late lap of 49.782s in the No. 11 Porsche 911 RSR, to bump teammate Laurens Vanthoor’s lap of 49.938s in the No. 912 Porsche.

Tandy also led Friday morning’s opening session at 50.065s.

For Tandy, the afternoon session was split between getting ready for the race — which took up the bulk of the hour — and then preparing for qualifying.

“This track is quite specific in the tire wear that we have,” said Tandy after the session, held in 92-degree heat. “There’s a very different car that you have between qualifying and the race, so we focused on race preparation for most of the session. Then near the end, we put on a new set of tires and did a qualifying simulation, which was pretty good. Obviously, it was at a good time to go out on the track, so to end day one with Porsche 1-2 is a good start.”

Richard Westbrook was third in the session, clocking a 50.314s in the No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT.

Oliver Gavin was fourth with an early lap of 50.462s in the No. 4 Corvette Racing C7.R. Later in the one-hour session, co-driver Marcel Fassler had an off-course excursion at the Uphill Turn, forcing the team to replace the nose and additional bodywork. Fassler returned to finish the session.

More IMSA!

Garcia’s Corvette fast at hot Lime Rock

Porsche rules opening Lime Rock practice

The Week In Sports Cars, July 18, with Graham Goodwin and Stephen Kilbey

In GTD, Bryan Sellers reeled off a fast lap of 51.797s in the final minutes of the session to top the charts in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Earlier, Patrick Long drifted off in Big Bend driving the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. He was able to continue after the team checked the undertray, and went on to post what wound up being the second-fastest lap in the class, 51.821s.

Mario Farnbacher was third-fastest in GTD, with 52.874s in the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3, followed by Andy Lally, 51.974 in the No. 11 Magnus Racing Lamborghini. The team switched from its traditional No. 44 for the event as part of a special Apollo 11 tribute livery celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

Turner Motorsport opted not to participate in the third session with the No. 96 BMW M6 GT3 driven by Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley. Both drivers and the crew are also participating in the accompanying IMSA Pilot Challenge race, running the No. 96 BMW M4 GT4.

UP NEXT: Saturday’s on-track activity begins with a 20-minute warm-up at 9:05 a.m., immediately followed by qualifying for GTD (9:35 a.m.) and GTLM (10 a.m.). The two-hour, 40-minute race starts at 2:40 p.m. A delayed same-day broadcast on NBCSN begins at 9:30 p.m. ET.

PRACTICE 3


Lime Rock, Nick Tandy, Porsche, IMSA, WeatherTech Sportscar Championship