Cameron Tops Opening Practice at Long Beach

Photo: Brian Clear/bcpix.com

Action Express Racing topped the time charts in Friday’s opening TUDOR United SportsCar Championship practice, leading a Corvette 1-2-3-4 sweep on the streets of Long Beach.

Dane Cameron ended the two-hour practice on top with a 1:16.063 lap time, recorded with less than one minute remaining in the relatively clean and green session.

Cameron’s time bumped the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP of Richard Westbrook to second with a 1:16.141 lap time, followed by the No. 5 Action Express entry of Joao Barbosa in third.

Jordan Taylor was fourth in the No. 10 Corvette DP, while the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford of Scott Pruett completed the top-five, and the best of the non bow-ties.

Ozz Negri made a late improvement in his Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda to end the session in sixth, but more than 1.2 seconds slower than the pace-setting Corvette.

It came following an incident with a GT car that resulted in a spin for the Brazilian, who struggled to get going again.

The only other notable incident came from the No. 07 Mazda of Tom Long, who nosed his car into the barriers at the Fountain but also continued after a slight delay.

GT Le Mans was led by the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia of Giancarlo Fisichella, after reeling off a 1:18.725 lap time.

Fisichella’s time was a considerable 0.404 seconds quicker than the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE of Bill Auberlen in second, with teammate John Edwards completing the top-three in class.

The second and final practice session is on tap for 4:45 p.m. PT.

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