Action Express, Porsche Lead Sebring Session 3

Action Express Racing and Porsche North America followed up their session leads at end-of-day Thursday with the fastest class times in the third of four overall sessions at the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s two-day test at Sebring International Raceway.

The No. 5 AXR Corvette DP of Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais was right on where it was yesterday. The time of 1:52.480 yesterday afternoon was nearly equaled, with the car’s best of 1:52.488 this morning best in Prototypes and overall.

Again, OAK Racing’s No. 42 Morgan Nissan driven by Gustavo Yacaman, Olivier Pla and Alex Brundle was second with a best time of 1:53.230.

Muscle Milk Pickett Racing made it up to third in the No. 6 Oreca 03 Nissan, a 1:53.587 the best time for the car shared by Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr, and new third driver for Sebring Jann Mardenborough.

Spirit of Daytona’s No. 90 Corvette DP ended fourth in the session, although had contact with the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost Riley early in the session. Extreme Speed Motorsports’ No. 1 HPD ARX-03b ended the session in fifth.

PC class leader was BAR1 Motorsports, with the No. 88 Oreca FLM09 driven by Sean Rayhall and Doug Bielefield clocking in at 1:56.942. The 8Star Motorsports No. 25 entry was 0.269 of a second behind in second.

In GT Le Mans, Porsche led again with a 1-2 for the factory Porsche North America 911 RSRs. The No. 912 entry of Patrick Long, Michael Christensen and Jorg Bergmeister led at 2:00.041, with the sister No. 911 second at 2:00.106.

The No. 3 Corvette C7.R was third, albeit six tenths of a second in arrears, with the Krohn Racing No. 57 Ferrari F458 Italia fourth and Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR already on the pace in fifth.

The Falken Porsche, driven by Bryan Sellers, Wolf Henzler and Marco Holzer, ended with a best lap of 2:00.912, so already within one second in the team’s first test with the new car.

GT Daytona also saw a Porsche on top, the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America entry driven by Kevin Estre, Connor De Phillippi and Patrick Lindsey at 2:04.289.

Five different manufacturers ended in the top five, with the No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 second, the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GTD third, No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage fourth and the No. 33 Riley Motorsports SRT Viper GT3-R fifth.

The second session of the day and fourth total of the test occurs from 2:45 to 5 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Session 3