GRAND-AM: GAINSCO Leads Opening Practice At Mid-Ohio

GRAND-AM

GRAND-AM: GAINSCO Leads Opening Practice At Mid-Ohio

No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney tops charts in first Rolex Series practice at Mid-Ohio...

Matt Cleary | Posted June 08, 2012 Lexington, OH

GAINSCO/BSR topped the time charts in opening practice at Mid-Ohio. (Photo: Brian Cleary/GRAND-AM)

In a stark and welcomed contrast to the cold, rainy conditions that initially greeted the Rolex Sports Car Series for the Detroit Grand Prix last week, cloudless skies and temperatures in the low 80‘s made for ideal running at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as the DP and GT class machines opened the EMCO Gears Classic (Live on SPEED, 4:30 PM ET Saturday) with practice on Friday.

While the conditions were drastically different, the leader board still had a similar look as the No. 99 GAINSCO Racing Corvette of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney topped the charts just as it had in Detroit’s opening session. Gurney, who got his first career laps in a Daytona Prototype in a 2004 test with Michael Shank Racing at Mid-Ohio, paced the opening session with a quick time of 1:19.022-seconds as the top seven DP machines set times within one second of Gurney’s time.

“We kind picked up where we started off in Detroit, same thing,” said Gurney with a smile. “We have our car working really well. Even at the end, on old tires, we were still turning pretty good lap times. So, we are again, cautiously optimistic because you need speed around here, so hopefully we can start up front and go trouble free.”

Gurney’s time edged the 1:19.157-seconds lap that Detroit winners Darren Law and Joao Barbosa notched in the No. 9 Action Express Corvette, with the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette entry of Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor posting the 3rd quickest time (1:19.567-seconds) in the first of two practice sessions slated on the day ahead of the 4:30 PM qualifying session to set the grid for Saturday’s 2.5-hour sprint.

Reflecting the wide mix of makes in the Rolex GT Class, the top six machines were a Porsche, BMW, Camaro GT.R, Ferrari 458, a second Camaro, and a Mazda RX-8.

The No. 67 TRG Porsche GT3 Cup of Spencer Pumpelly and Steven Berthue led the GT times with a 1:25.294-second lap of the 2.258-mile natural terrain road course that played host to the 2011 season finale but has returned to its traditional early June date.

A second practice session will follow this afternoon, with the DP grid will be set starting at 4:30 and the GT field slated to qualify at 4:55 PM ET.

RESULTS: Practice 1

With experience at Skip Barber Racing School, Lime Rock Park, and several IndyCar teams, Matt Cleary has covered open wheel and sports car racing for over a decade. Working for Sunday Group Management, Cleary also provides strategic motorsports consulting for a range of clients in the sport. You can follow him on Twitter @sundaygroup.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt Cleary

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