Herta puts AGR out front

The first test session for the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach saw Bryan Herta put in a late flier to put the Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX-01b at the top of the timing charts after the first 55-minute session. In last year’s debut for the American Le Mans Series at the famed street circuit, the AGR Acura qualified on the overall pole and led 39 of the first 46 laps. Herta’s time of 1:14.303 was 0.408 seconds ahead of Timo Bernhard’s Porsche RS Spyder for Penske Racing and another 0.191 seconds ahead of Lucas Luhr in Audi Sport North America’s No. 2 Audi R10 TDI, the best of the LMP1 cars. He was just ahead of Emanuele Pirro in the sister car.

Jan Magnussen went quickest in GT1 in Corvette Racing’s No. 3 Corvette C6.R at 1:18.938. The cellulosic E85-powered supercar was a little less than 0.6 seconds ahead of Oliver Gavin in the sister car.

Ferrari and Porsche are poised for another battle in GT2. Dominik Farnbacher went quickest in Tafel Racing’s Ferrari F430 GT at 1:21.936, only 0.465 seconds ahead of Flying Lizard Motorsports’ No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Wolf Henzler behind the wheel. The two marques alternated the first six positions in class with a gap of less than 1.5 second separating them.