The first Free Practice session of the Lone Star Le Mans weekend saw Action Express run fastest, with Joao Barbosa setting a 1:58.813 in the #5 Corvette DP ahead of the sister car which finished up second.
At the start though, lengthy red flag period immediately interrupted the Session after the #55 Mazda Prototype, Jonathan Bomarito at the wheel came to a halt on the Start-Finish straight. The car was eventually moved with the assistance of dollies, the front wheels apparently completely locked (broken master cylinder failure say the team).
When track action did get underway again, the clock having kept running, but the session extended by 15 minutes it left c.45 minutes of track action.
The Action Express DPs were immediately the pace setters, Joao Barbosa into the 1:58s in the #5 (1:58.813), Dane Cameron in the Whelen backed #31 a tenth back.
The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing car made it a DP 1,2,3 with Ozz Negri posting a late session post 2 minute time to make the #60 Mike Shank racing Ligier Honda the fastest LMP2 spec Prototype, fourth overall.
By the time a second red flag came out with 18 minutes remaining (for the #25 BMW stopped out on track), the top GTLM runner was the #66 Ford GT, a 2:04.638 three tenths ahead of Nick Tandy’s #911 Porsche with Ryan Briscoe in close company in the second Ford, the Risi Ferrari fourth fastest.
Ahead on the timing screens of the GTLMs of course where the PC Orecas, indeed the #52 PR1/ Mathiasen car was up as high as fifth overall after an early session 2:01.131 from Tom Kimber-Smith. The £52 dropped to 7th fastest as Prototypes improved but TK-S’s time wasn’t beaten.
Second and third in the class order were the two Starworks entries, the #8 ahead of the #88, Renge van der Zande ahead of Richard Bradley.
In GTD Jens Klingmann put the #96 Turner BMW on top with a 2:08.075, just a few hundredths ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #33 Viper (2:08.116) with the Championship leading #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488.
