The #5 Action Express Corvette DP of Joao Barbosa went fastest in the first day of practice ahead of the 2015 12 Hours of Sebring. Barbosa’s time of 1:52.485 was set during the first practice session of race week, and was by far the quickest. The Vette DP ended up over a second faster than all the other runners in the Prototype class.
The remaining spots in the top three during Practice 1 were filled by LMP2 spec cars. Michael Shank Racing’s Ligier JS P2 Honda of John Pew, Oswaldo Negri Jr and Justin Wilson was second fastest after Negri’s lap of 1:53.732, 1.2 seconds off Barbosa. A further tenth back was the Krohn Racing Ligier thanks to a solid lap by Nic Jonsson.
BMW Team RLL’s #25 Z4 GTE of Bill Auberlen, Augusto Farfus and Marco Werner paced the GTLM runners with a time of 1:59.496, beating out the #911 factory Porsche of Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Pat Long and the Falken Tires Porsche by just over a tenth of a second.
By the session’s end there really was nothing between the top five in the class in fact, who were separated by less than two tenths! The #3 Corvette Racing C7.R went fourth fastest, ahead of the second factory Porsche – the #912 – which ended up fifth.
Core Autosport managed to lead the PC teams – the #54 Oreca went almost a second quicker than the rest of the field with a time of 1:55.144. And setting in GTD was eventually the Porscche 911 of Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche, driven by Ian James, Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas – their best a 2:03.455 less than a tenth quicker than the #73 Parkplace 911.
In the second Free Practice session of the day, Krohn Racing were once again fast, but this time round managed to snatch the top spot. The top three from FP1 were reversed after team-newcomer Olivier Pla managed to set a time of 1:52.731. The Frenchman’s tour was enough to beat out the Michael Shank Ligier and Action Express DP who paced the field earlier in the day. Nevertheless, the trailing pair were still within a second of the best time.
In GTLM BMW were once again fastest, but the #25 topped the sheets after all was said and done this time. John Edwards’ lap of 1:59.859 gave the predominantly black liveried Team RLL Z4 the best time in what was once again a hotly contested class. It was almost too close to call, with the top eight ending up within seven tenths of each other – the #911 Porsche and #3 Vette made up the top three.
The #22 Alex Job Racing Porsche was fastest in GTD with a 2:04.840 – the class was once again extremely close and dominated by Porsche teams. The #52 PR1 Oreca headed the PC teams, but was two seconds slower than the best time in the class from FP1.
Both sessions were relatively clean, with the red flag only making a couple of appearances due to cars stopping out on the circuit. The Riley Motorsports Viper was towed back to the garage in the first session after mechanical trouble, which left the team repairing the car until the closing minutes of FP2. The #11 RSR PC Oreca also stopped on circuit, during the second and final TUSCC session of the day.
Stephen Kilbey
