Negri Leads Opening Practice at Daytona

Ozz Negri has taken the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda to the top of the timesheets in Thursday’s opening one-hour practice for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Negri was the only driver to break into the 1:39 bracket in the session, at 1:39.633. Times were down roughly half a second from where they were at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test.

Defending race winners Action Express Racing, like Shank in a new livery for the 2015 edition, were second with the No. 5 Corvette DP, with the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford third.

Other class leaders included Tom Kimber-Smith in Prototype Challenge (No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca FLM09), Bill Auberlen in GT Le Mans (No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE) and Andy Lally (No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America) in GT Daytona.

Only one red flag flew, for the DeltaWing stopped on course exiting the Bus Stop about 15 minutes into the session.

The No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 made it on track late in the session after spending most of the session in the garage.

Second practice is at 1:20 p.m. ET, for a half hour.

RESULTS: Practice 1