Plumb Tops Friday; Crash for GS Championship Leaders

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Matt Plumb topped the timesheets in the opening day of track action for the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge at Road America, in preparation for Saturday’s two-hour race.

The Compass Racing driver reeled off a 2:19.432 lap time in the No. 76 McLaren 570D GT4 in the first of two 60-minute practice sessions to lead the way on Friday.

Plumb edged out the No. 92 Ramsey Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Alexandre Premat by 0.046 seconds, with the No. 28 RS1 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR of Spencer Pumpelly third.

While the top three times were set in the morning, Guy Cosmo’s Session 2 pace-setting 2:19.773 in the No. 4 Team TGM Mercedes GT4 was good enough for fourth quickest on the day.

Cosmo narrowly edged out the No. 69 Motorsport In Action McLaren GT4 for the top time in the session.

Compass Racing also led the way in TCR, with the No. 75 Audi RS 3 LMS of Pierre Kleinubing quickest on Friday.

The No. 73 MINI JCW of Mat Pombo, meanwhile, paced ST.

Heavy Accident for GS Points Leaders

Friday’s opening practice was marred by a heavy accident by the GS championship-leading No. 60 Roush Performance/KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 of Nate Stacy.

While Stacy escaped injury, extensive damage was sustained to the Multimatic-built car, which will take no further part in the weekend.

A Michigan-based team is working to potentially bring a backup car to the track in time for qualifying tomorrow.

Stacy and co-driver Kyle Marcelli entered the weekend with a six-point lead over a two-way tie between Team TGM’s Hugh Plumnb and Owen Trinkler and the BimmerWorld Racing duo of Tyler Cooke and James Clay.

A final practice is set for Saturday at 10:15 a.m. CDT, followed immediately by qualifying.

RESULTS: Practice 1
RESULTS: Practice 2

Photo: Ryan Myrehn

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