Brabham sets early pace in Utah

David Brabham turned the fastest lap in the first official practice session for the American Le Mans Series’ Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix. The LMP1 championship co-leader with teammate Scott Sharp toured the 15-turn, 3.048-mile Miller Motorsports Park circuit at 1:34.104 (116.603 mph) on his final lap of the Saturday morning session.

Brabham and Sharp were overall winners two rounds ago at St. Petersburg. The Australian star was 0.482 seconds ahead of Gil de Ferran (1:34.586 and 116.009 mph) in the de Ferran Motorsports Acura ARX-02a that was quickest in Friday’s test session. De Ferran will team with Simon Pagenaud, who was fastest Friday.

Dyson Racing’s Guy Smith was third overall and first in LMP2. His Mazda-powered Lola B09/86-Mazda MZR-R turned in a lap of 1:35.421 (114.994 mph), about 0.2 seconds better than his class-leading time from Friday. Smith will drive with Chris Dyson and was 0.118 seconds better than the third-fastest P1 entry of Jon Field, Clint Field and Chapman Ducote in Intersport Racing’s Lola B06/10-AER.

Adrian Fernandez was second in P2 and fifth overall at 1:35.559 (114.827 mph). He will share the Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b with Luis Diaz. The pairing leads the class championship and opened the season with three straight victories.

Corsa Motorsports Zytek 09HS hybrid prototype of Johnny Mowlem and Stefan Johansson was sixth overall and fourth fastest in P1 on its race debut.

Jörg Bergmeister was the quickest driver in GT2 for Flying Lizard Motorsports. The German Porsche factory driver turned in a lap of 1:48.123 (101.484 mph) in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR that he will share with American factory driver Patrick Long. Bergmeister was 0.756 seconds quicker than Risi Competizione’s Ferrari F430 GT of Jaime Melo and Pierre Kaffer and another 0.153 seconds better than Farnbacher Loles Racing’s Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb.

Snow Racing’s Martin Snow turned the fastest lap among the new Challenge class drivers. His best time was a 1:56.555 (94.14 mph) in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car that he will share with wife Melanie. The pairing were part of the GTS class-winning Porsche 911 Turbo in the first American Le Mans Series race in 1999 at Sebring.

Martin Snow was 0.219 seconds better than ORBIT Racing’s Guy Cosmo, a former LMP2 winner in the Series. Cosmo will drive with John Baker.

Qualifying is scheduled for 3:20 p.m. MDT today.