Dixon keeps de Ferran team on top
Two more sessions are scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The Series will be back at Sebring in less than two months for the season-opening 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida, the 100th race in Series history.
The new Acura ARX-02a that Dixon drove Wednesday morning has been fastest in all but one of the six sessions so far. Teammate Simon Pagenaud has the week’s quickest time, a 1:44.814 (127.082 mph) from Tuesday morning. His time bettered Marco Werner’s standing qualifying record around the famed 17-turn, 3.7-mile layout, set in 2007 in an Audi R10 TDI. Pagenaud, Dixon and team owner Gil de Ferran will team for the 12 Hours.
Acura’s other P1 entry from Patr¢n Highcroft Racing was second quickest Wednesday morning despite turning just eight laps. The car of David Brabham, Scott Sharp and Dario Franchitti posted a quick time of 1:46.157 (125.475 mph) before an electrical issue arose during the session.
Dyson Racing’s Mazda-powered Lola B08/86 coupe hit the circuit for the first time this week. Chris Dyson did all the work in the morning with a best lap of 1:49.462 (121.686 mph).
Richard Lietz went fastest in GT2 for Farnbacher Loles Racing and its new 2009-spec Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. A Porsche factory driver, Lietz set a time of 2:02.960 (108.328 mph) in the car that he is driving with full-season partners Dirk Werner and Wolf Henzler.
Lietz outpaced the Flying Lizard Motorsports duo of Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long, also driving a Porsche 911, by less than 0.7 seconds. A second Flying Lizard Porsche, driven by Johannes van Overbeek, Darren Law and Seth Neiman, was third in class at 2:04.536 (106.957 mph).