BMW Fastest in GTLM, Audi Unofficially Faster Than GTD Track Record

Daytona Beach, Florida – Felipe Albuquerque and Dane Cameron drove Corvette DPs from Action Express Racing to the top-two positions on the speed chart Thursday during the first day of a two-day IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship test at Sebring International Raceway.

The test allows teams to prepare for the 64th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, Round 2 of the WeatherTech Championship and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup, set for Saturday, March 19.

Albuquerque set the fastest lap of the day in the afternoon session in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP, 1:51.965, while Dane Cameron led the morning action, running 1:52.306 (119.887 mph) in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP.

BMW and Audi were quickest in the respective GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes.

BMW Team RLL paced both sessions in GTLM, with Bill Auberlen, Dirk Werner, John Edwards, Lucas Luhr and Kuno Wittmer sharing the No. 25 IHG Rewards Club BMW M6 GTLM. The car’s best lap was 1:58.780 (113.352 mph).

Second with a lap of 1:59.073 (113.073 mph) was the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Toni Vilander and Davide Rigon. Porsche North America brought one of its two cars to the test, with the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki with a lap of 1:59.170 (112.981 mph).

Ford Performance brought both of its Ford GTs to the test, which was split into a pair of four-hour sessions on Thursday.

GTD unofficially saw 11 of the 17 unofficially eclipse Jeroen Bleekemolen’s track record, set last year in a Dodge Viper GT3-R.

Lawson Aschenbach led the day, running 2:01.822 (110.522 mph) in the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS GT3.

Leading the four Prototype Challenge (PC) entries was the No. 54 CORE autosport ORECA FLM09 of Jon Bennett, Colin Braun and Mark Wilkins, with an unofficial track record lap of 1: (11 mph).

NOTES AND QUOTES

• Ford Performance announced on Thursday that four-time Champ Car titlist Sebastien Bourdais would join Dirk Muller and Joey Hand in the No. 66 Ford GT for Sebring, while Scott Dixon would join Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook in driving the 67 Ford GT for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. Both Bourdais and Dixon participated in the team’s testing.

“I was involved in a bit of the early stuff with this program in a few tests at the end of last year, but I didn’t get to drive it at Daytona,” Dixon said. “Obviously, it’s a big change from the Prototype to the GT, but it’s a fun program to be part of. It’s nice to come here, run a few laps and make the car as durable as possible.

“It’s definitely different from anything I’ve driven here at Sebring. The car is still early on in its life cycle, so there’s a lot of room to develop things. It’s a new book; there are a lot of directions you can go, and it’s nice to be driving something you can have some influence.”

• The test marked the debut of the Ferrari 488 GT3 in IMSA, as Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan and Jeff Segal co-drove the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa entry. It was the car’s first time out in the U.S. after an initial shakedown in Italy.

“I did my first laps in the car this morning, and it was amazing,” Nielsen said. “We still have a few things to work on – one of them is seat position, because we have a bit of a size difference – but the car is very responsive and it’s nice to drive on the track. The other teams have had their new cars for Daytona, and it’s nice to finally be part of the game.”

• Ben Keating, No. 33 and No. 93 Riley Motorsports ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper GT3-R: “I’ve always felt like the Viper liked Sebring compared to the other cars in our class; this year, it seems every GTD car likes Sebring. So I guess Sebring likes GT3 cars and the advantage we’ve had is gone all of a sudden. … There are a lot of fast cars out there. I’m doing about the same lap time that I did last year. Last year, it was a really good lap time. Today, it’s slow as molasses.”

• In its competition debut, Dream Racing tested in the WeatherTech Championship for the first time with the No. 27 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 for regular drivers Larry DeGeorge and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli, joined at the test by Paolo Ruberti and Fabio Babini.

“I’ve been to Sebring once before, for last year’s World Final,” said Sbirrazzuoli. “After the race, I got to do three or four laps with a Huracán GT3 which had a Daytona setup. That’s completely different from the setup we’re running at this test. This is a new experience for me, starting now. I used to do endurance racing in Europe, now I’m doing endurance racing in the U.S.”

The team had an off-course excursion late in the morning session that resulted in left-front damage.

“Just a dumb mistake,” DeGeorge said. “I was carrying too much speed into the corner. The back end got loose, and I tried to save it. The damage looks mostly cosmetic. We’ve got our other car; we’ll work on it and we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”

• Testing continues on Friday for all WeatherTech Championship competitors, running from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a one-hour lunch break.

Canadians In BOLD