ELKHART LAKE, Wis. - The No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson topped the charts in the first day of practice for the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase, as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship heads to Road America.
Stephen Simpson’s lap of 1:55.057 was best on a rainy day at the Elkhart Lake track, the rain finally relenting in the second of two one-hour practice sessions in the afternoon.
Simpson and co-driver Misha Goikhberg have impressed all season for the John Church-led team, an elusive first win thus proving the only thing they haven’t accomplished. They sit third in the Prototype points standings heading into this weekend’s race.
The pair of Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.Rs (from Mustang Sampling Racing and Whelen Engineering Racing) were next, ahead of the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 Gibson - first of the Ligiers with Olivier Pla and Jose Gutierrez back in that car this week.
The new Ligier racing this weekend, the No. 90 VISIT FLORIDA Racing Ligier JS P217 Gibson, topped the morning session with Renger van der Zande and Marc Goossens at 1:59.977.
The second session times were more representative with a smaller amount of rain.
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 66 Ford GT (GT Le Mans) and the No. 54 CORE autosport Porsche 911 GT3 R (GT Daytona) topped the GT classes in the second session, while Performance Tech Motorsports led both PC sessions.
There were no major incidents during the day, the only real issues being that the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS and No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPis didn’t run in the morning session.
Of note, the 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 lineups are switched up this weekend. Scott Pruett moves to the No. 15 Lexus he’ll now share with Jack Hawksworth, while Robert Alon goes to the No. 14 Lexus with Sage Karam. Also, the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE has been removed from the entry list. The team was incorrectly listed and is yet to confirm its race return to action for any further races this year.
Third practice runs at 8:55 a.m. CT and local time on Saturday.
RESULTS: Practice 1, Practice 2