Day 2: Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing fastest again

Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing ended the annual Sebring Winter Test with the fastest time of the week during Thursday’s final session – a 1:49.997 (121.094 mph) lap by Lucas Luhr at Sebring International Raceway. The two-day session served as a preview for the 59th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida and the opening round of the 2011 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr¢n.

Luhr will drive at the 12 Hours with Klaus Graf and team owner Greg Pickett in Muscle Milk’s new Aston Martin-powered Lola coupe for LMP1. The squad won in P2 last year at Sebring with a Porsche RS Spyder, and went quickest during each of Wednesday’s and Thursday’s two sessions in its new Lola-Aston Martin. Thursday’s final session began with a brief rain shower, but the track dried midway during the afternoon.

The Muscle Milk entry outpaced Dyson Racing in each of the four sessions. The Lola-Mazda coupe’s fastest time was a 1:50.205 lap in the afternoon session. Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and Jay Cochran all shared driving duties.

Corvette Racing got into the act as well in GT with the best class times both days. The team’s No. 3 Corvette C6.R of Olivier Beretta, Tommy Milner and Antonio Garcia posted the quickest time of all with a 2:02.186 (109.014 mph) pass in the afternoon. The Corvette operation was consistent with the sister car of Jan Magnussen, Oliver Gavin and Richard Westbrook setting a lap of 2:02.197 (109.004 mph) in the morning.

Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long was third quickest in GT with a lap of 2:02.373 (108.848 mph) in the afternoon session. The final four-hour run was particularly close with only 0.43 seconds separating the top four cars – the two Corvettes and Porsches from Flying Lizard and Team Falken Tire.

CORE autosport’s ORECA FLM09 of Jon Bennett, Frankie Montecalvo and Ryan Dalziel went quickest in LMPC with a lap of 1:54.370 (116.464 mph). Its time in the morning session topped both of Genoa Racing’s entries, led by Larry Conner’s time of 1:55.721 (115.104 mph) in the morning. The second ORECA of Eric Lux, Elton Julian and Christian Zugel posted a best lap of 1:55.636 (115.189 mph), also in the morning.

The GT Challenge fight was just as close. Like LMPC, the class’ fastest times all came in the morning session. TRG’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry of Spencer Pumpelly, Duncan Ende and Dion von Moltke set the quickest lap at 2:06.405 (105.376 mph). Alex Job Racing, last year’s Sebring class winner, was next at 2:06.647 (105.174 mph); Leh Keen, Bill Sweedler and Brian Wong each drove the Porsche.