Muscle Milk Pickett Racing Leads Opening Test Day For Petit Le Mans

Ten American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron cars took advantage of near perfect weather conditions on Sunday at Road Atlanta to begin preparations for next Saturday’s 16th Annual Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda in a pair of test sessions.

Reigning P1 champions Muscle Milk Pickett Racing led the way in both of the day’s sessions, posting a best lap of 1:10.510 (129.684 mph) in the morning session for the fastest time of the day. The No. 6 Muscle Milk HPD ARX-03c will be shared this week by Romain Dumas, Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf. Dumas posted the quickest time.

Leading the way in the P2 class and turning the second-quickest time overall was the No. 551 Siemens/Alpina Watches/Ohiya Casino Resort Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b at 1:13.689 (124.089 mph). Team owner/driver Scott Tucker and Ryan Briscoe are the entered drivers for the No. 551 machine. Third quickest on the day was Level 5’s No. 552 entry for Tucker, Marini Franchitti and Guy Cosmo at 1:14.489 (122.756 mph).

The lone Prototype Challenge presented by Continental Tire machine to turn laps on Sunday was the No. 25 8Star Motorsports ORECA FLM09. The car, to be co-driven by Sean Rayhall and Ozz Negri, turned a best lap of 1:16.072 (120.202 mph).

SRT Motorsports’ pair of SRT Viper GTS-Rs was the quickest of four GT machines to participate in Sunday’s test sessions. Topping the chart was the No. 93 Pennzoil Ultra machine at 1:19.394 (115.172 mph) to be shared by Jonathan Bomarito, Kuno Wittmer and Tommy Kendall.

“I’m really pleased with how well the cars rolled out of the trailer which we kind of expected, to be honest," Bomarito said. “The last few races, the cars have rolled out of the truck with a really good baseline setup, decent balance. We had some system checks in that first session today. We have a long week so we have to pace ourselves."

The lone GT Challenge entry to test on Sunday was the No. 66 Port Lavaca Group/Viper Exchange/Adobe Road Winery Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from TRG at 1:25.283 (107.219 mph). The car will be co-driven by Craig Stanton, Ben Keating and Damien Faulkner. Keating and Faulkner come into Petit Le Mans riding a two-race winning streak after taking the inaugural ALMS round at Circuit of The Americas last month and at Virginia International Raceway last Saturday.