Dyson’s Smith Quickest in Opening Baltimore ALMS Practice
Such a close gap between the Dyson car and Muscle Milk ARX-03a is nothing new in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr¢n. Smith won two weeks ago at Road America over Muscle Milk’s Lucas Luhr by 0.083 seconds. Muscle Milk and its drivers lead the Dyson contingent for the ALMS’ P1 drivers, team and manufacturer championships.
Corvette Racing sat 1-2 in GT with their Corvette C6 ZR1s, led by Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette. He set a time of 1:30.580 (81.078 mph) and went 0.356 seconds quicker than Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 sister car. A pair of BMW Team RLL BMW M3 GTs was third and fourth; Joey Hand was the quickest of the two at 1:31.110 (80.606 mph).
Conquest Endurance’s Martin Plowman led P2 in the No. 37 Morgan-Nissan prototype. His time of 1:28.021 (83.435 mph) – good enough for third overall – was 0.923 seconds clear of Level 5 Motorsports’ Christophe Bouchut. Conquest won in class at Road America but Level 5 leads the class championship.
Having already clinched the Prototype Challenge team championship, CORE autosport still held the first two positions in class. Ryan Dalziel set the pace in the No. 6 ORECA FLM09 at 1:28.538 (82.947 mph) and was 0.079 seconds clear of teammate Colin Braun in the No. 05 car. Merchant Services Racing’s Kyle Marcelli was third at 1:28.806 (82.697 mph).
Green Hornet Racing’s Damien Faulkner posted the best GT Challenge time in his No. 34 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. His lap of 1:34.854 (77.424 mph) gave the Irishman a 0.238-second gap back to TRG’s Spencer Pumpelly.