Action Express Leads TUSC Practice 3 at Daytona

Corvette Daytona Prototypes completed a sweep of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s three practice sessions on Thursday, ahead of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP set the fastest lap in Practice 3, the 90-minute night practice to conclude the day’s activities. Sebastien Bourdais set the fastest time at 1:38.964; the Frenchman will co-drive with Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa.

Fellow Corvettes ended second and third in the cooler session. The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona entry, which led the two day sessions, was second at 1:39.883 with the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry making its first official appearance in the top three at 1:39.992.

After their struggles in qualifying, a group of P2 cars managed to improve their positioning although the gap was still well north of a second to the leading DP cars.

Gustavo Yacaman made it to fifth in the No. 42 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan (1:40.162), and both Extreme Speed HPDs and the Muscle Milk Pickett Racing ORECA 03 Nissan were each in the next group of four cars.

Sam Bird led the PC field in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport ORECA FLM09 (1:42.632) with CORE autosport and Performance Tech’s entries second and third in class.

Of note, 8Star Motorsports did not complete any laps in the night practice, as the team is working to replace its gearbox for Friday morning’s one and only session.

The SRT Viper team followed up its GTLM class pole in the daytime with the fastest lap at night, but with the sister No. 93 fastest Thursday night instead of the polesitting No. 91.

Rob Bell led the GTLM field in the No. 93 SRT Viper GTS-R at 1:44.992; Aston Martin’s No. 97 Vantage and Risi Competizione’s No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia were next.

A trio of Ferrari 458s led the GTD class field. Alessandro Pier Guidi was quickest in the No. 555 Level 5 Ferrari 458 GT3 at 1:47.259, with Paulo Ruberti second in the No. 49 Spirit of Race entry at 1:47.423 and Mikhail Aleshin third in the No. 72 SMP/ESM Racing entry at 1:47.823.

Final practice for the Rolex 24 at Daytona will occur Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET.