Dumas Fastest in Opening Sebring Practice for Audi
Audi enters Sebring seeking its first victory in America’s greatest sports car race since 2009. Winning would be double-special as the 12 Hours serves as the opening round of both the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr¢n and the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Dumas’ Audi was 1.136 seconds clear of Klaus Graf in Muscle Milk Pickett Racing’s HPD ARX-03a. The quickest of the ALMS regulars had a 0.351-second advantage over the Audi of Marcel Fassler.
Level 5 Motorsports’ Joao Barbosa was the fastest driver in P2. His lap of 1:52.680 in his HPD ARX-03b put him 0.404 seconds ahead of John Martin in the ADR-Delta’s ORECA 03-Nissan prototype. Next up was Luis Diaz in the second Level 5 HPD at 1:53.664.
ALMS teams held the top two spots in GT with Oliver Gavin’s Corvette C6.R setting the fastest lap at 2:01.154. The Corvette Racing veteran was just 0.009 seconds ahead of BMW Team RLL newcomer Jonathan Summerton in his BMW M3 GT. Toni Vilander sat third for AF Corse with a lap of 2:01.610 in his Ferrari F430 GT.
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing’s Memo Gidley was the fastest driver in Prototype Challenge after a lap of 1:55.881 in the team’s ORECA FLM09. Alex Popow had the second-fastest lap at 1:56.018 in CORE autosport’s prototype; he was about 0.7 seconds ahead of Performance Tech’s Ricardo Vera.
Dominik Farnbacher set the pace in GTE Am. His lap of 2:02.988 in Luxury Racing’s Ferrari F430 GT was good enough for a 0.524-second gap back to Paolo Ruberti in Team Felbermayr Proton’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.
In GT Challenge, Leh Keen set the fastest time for Alex Job Racing at 2:07.308. His Porsche 911 GT3 Cup was 0.315 seconds clear of NGT Motorsport’s Henrique Cisneros.
The day’s second practice session is set for 2:50 p.m. ET.