Montoya Quickest in Wet Opening Practice at Mid-Ohio

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Juan Pablo Montoya led the way in a rain-soaked opening practice session for the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio.

The Colombian set a 1:41.568 lap time in the No. 6 Team Penske Acura ARX-05 in the 60-minute session, edging out the GT Le Mans class-leading No. 912 Porsche of Earl Bamber by 0.662 seconds.

It came prior to a red flag for Montoya, who beached his DPi contender with 20 minutes left on the clock in the DPi/GTLM session.

Bamber had been quickest overall prior to Montoya’s improvement from co-driver Dane Cameron’s overall pace-setting time early on.

Tom Blomqvist, in his Mid-Ohio debut, ended up third overall and second quickest in GTLM in the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE.

The No. 54 CORE autosport Nissan DPi of Colin Braun and Ricky Taylor’s No. 7 Acura DPi completing the top-five overall.

Quickest in GT Daytona was the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Trent Hindman, who was eighth overall.

Only 24 of the 36 cars turned laps in Practice 1, which included a 15-minute session for Silver and Bronze-rated GTD drivers only.

Aside from Montoya’s spin, there were no other further incidents.

Practice 2 is set to get underway at 3:15 p.m. EDT, with improved weather expected.

RESULTS: Practice 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John