Van der Zande Quickest in Opening Practice at Lime Rock

Renger van der Zande set the pace in the opening hour-long practice session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park.

The Dutchman was the lone driver to break the 49-second barrier, posting his fastest lap of 48.808 in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Oreca FLM09, 0.214 seconds ahead of the Colin Braun-piloted No. 54 CORE autosport machine.

Both cars posted times faster than Stephen Simpson’s 2015 pole lap.

The action ran the full 60 minutes with just one interruption, caused when the No. 100 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM stopped at the exit of Big Bend, 12 minutes into the session.

That stoppage brought out the red flag, halting the session for about 10 minutes. The car was third in class at the time with John Edwards behind the wheel.

The team indicated on Twitter that it was a driveline failure, possibly located in the gearbox, that caused the car to slow.

Corvette showed the pace in GT Le Mans competition with Oliver Gavin hustling the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R to a fast time of 51.383.

The No. 66 Ford GT posted the second-fastest time in class, with the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE in third.

In GT Daytona, Andy Lally posted the fastest lap in the No. 44 Audi R8 LMS for Magnus Racing, followed by the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park class-winning No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.

The session was run with ambient temperatures climbing into the low-90s, but there is a chance for rain in this afternoon’s Practice 2, which is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Practice 1