Negri Leads Third Straight Practice at Monterey

Ozz Negri continued to lower the mark in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda in the third one-hour practice session for this weekend’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Negri clocked the first 1:18 lap of the weekend, a 1:18.516, to top the timesheets for the third straight practice ahead of the fourth TUDOR United SportsCar Championship weekend of the year.

It gives Michael Shank Racing a perfect three-for-three sweep of practice at Monterey heading into Saturday’s qualifying, which matches their feat at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Negri scored pole at Daytona and the team also led the fourth and final practice there, going five-for-five in pre-race sessions.

Second and best of the rest was Richard Westbrook in the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP, at 1:19.352.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP, No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford and No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP completed the top five. Jonathan Bomarito turned the best lap of the weekend for SpeedSource Mazda at 1:21.066 on his 29th and last lap of the session.

Renger van der Zande led Prototype Challenge in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Oreca FLM09 at 1:20.105, which was nearly a second quicker than Bruno Junqueira’s best time on Friday.

BMW returned to the fore in GT Le Mans, with the pair of BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTEs first and second. The No. 24 BMW driven by Lucas Luhr edged the sister No. 25 BMW driven by Dirk Werner, with Luhr’s 1:22.591 just ahead of Werner’s 1:22.677.

The No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR and the pair of Corvette Racing Corvette C7.Rs completed the top five in GTLM.

Park Place Motorsports’ No. 73 Porsche 911 GT America led its second straight practice in GT Daytona. Patrick Lindsey set Friday’s best time of 1:27.194 and co-driver Spencer Pumpelly lowered that mark to 1:26.660 this morning.

The No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS, No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia, No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 and No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R made it five different marques in the top five, with first through seventh covered by 0.651 of a second. Less than a tenth – a scant 0.038 of a second – covered third through seventh.

Michael Marsal had a brief off in the Turner BMW at Turn 4 to cause a red flag but resumed; elsewhere the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 had an off-and-on at Turn 2 and the No. 07 SpeedSource Mazda failed to turn a lap in the session.

Qualifying will be streamed live worldwide on IMSA.com, beginning at 4:15 p.m PT and local time, with IMSA Radio coverage.

RESULTS: Practice 3