The ALMS element of the International Sports Car Weekend at Austin got underway in muggy and overcast conditions early on Thursday afternoon with a two hour test session; the first half hour being for prototypes, followed by a mixed hour and a GT-only final 30 minutes.
The #551 Level 5 Motorsport HPD of Scott Tucker and Ryan Briscoe led the way after the first half hour, with a 1:55.423 on its eighth lap, with the #16 Dyson Racing Lola B12/60 of Tony Burgess and Chris McMurry second-quickest on 1:57.144.The second Level 5 ARX-03c of Tucker, Marino Franchitti and Guy Cosmo was third on 1:57.718, just over a second quicker at this stage than the first of the Extreme Speed Motorsport HPD, the #01 of Scott Sharp and Anthony Lazzaro.
The Muscle Milk HPD sat out the first half-hour and seemed to be in no hurry to join in as the session continued. [Update – it stayed in the team awning for the full session]
The #52 PR1 Mathiasen FLM of points-leader Mike Guasch and Dane Cameron headed the PC times, on 1:59.333, three-tenths quicker than the #9 RSR Racing ORECA of Bruno Junqueira and David Heinemeier-Hansson; the latter being one of three drivers doing double-duty with the FIA WEC this weekend – the others being Tom Kimber-Smith and Matteo Malucelli.
BMW Team RLL set the early pace as the GT and GTC classes joined the mix, but it was the #48 Paul Miller Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Bryce Miller and Marco Holzer that topped the times after 15 minutes, with a 2:05.105. Team Falken Tire had an early anxious moment, as the #17 Porsche of Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers was tapped into a spin by the #91 SRT Viper of Dominik Farnbacher and Marc Goossens, but the car was able to continue without delay or obvious damage. The CORE Autosport Porsche of Pat Long and Colin Braun was second on 2:05.335.
Back in P1, the DeltaWing Coupe of Andy Meyrick and Katherine Legge was clocking up the laps as it got ready for its race debut, but so far the focus was clearly on reliability and not pace, with the LM12 propping up the prototype times, 14th overall, with a best of 2:03.680 after an hour and 18 laps.
The #27 Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Patrick Dempsey and Andy Lally headed the GTC times after 60 minutes with a 2:13.849, just a few hundredths quicker than the two Flying Lizard Porsches – the #45 of Nelson Canache Jr and Spencer Pumpelly ahead of the #44 of Seth Neiman and Dion von Moltke.
With just over 30 minutes to go, the #91 Viper posted its quickest time of the session so far – 2:05.259 being second quickest in GT – and the #66 TRG Porsche of Ben Keating and Damien Faulkner moved to the top of GTC on 2:13.275.
Risi Competizione started to get into gear a quarter of an hour from the end when the #62 Ferrari 458 of Olivier Beretta and Matteo Malucelli went to the top of the times on 2:04.964, while the #55 BMW Z4 GTE of Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand went fourth with a 2:05.313. The two Corvettes were eighth and ninth in class, the #3 ahead of #4, but even in a test session that meant that the second of these was just 1.4 seconds off the pace of the class leader.
Just as an aside, the fastest P2 time of 1:55.423 was already more than four seconds quicker than the quickest DP time of 1:59.811 (set by the #01 BMW Riley during Practice 1) from the Grand-Am meeting at the same circuit in March, while the 2:04.506 set by the Risi Ferrari just before the session close was almost four seconds quicker than the fastest GT time of 2:08.266 (set by the #61 Ferrari 458 in Practice 4).
The session ended with the fastest class times being:
P1: 1:57.144 – #16 Dyson Lola, 2nd overall
P2: 1:55.423 – #551 Level 5 HPD, 1st overall
PC: 1:59.077 – #05 CORE FLM09, 6th overall
GT: 2:04.506 – #62 Risi Ferrari 458, 15th overall
GTC: 2:13.275 – #66 TRG Porsche, 26th overall
MH
