Ganassi on Top Again in Sebring Friday Practice

Chip Ganassi Racing’s pair of Ford EcoBoost Rileys went to the top of the time sheets right at the end of Friday’s lone one-hour TUDOR United SportsCar Championship practice before qualifying.

Scott Pruett in the No. 01 topped the charts at 1:53.241 and teammate Scott Dixon was second in the No. 02 at 1:53.500, with both fastest times set on their final laps (18 and 17, respectively) of the session.

Oliver Pla had the fastest lap for most of the session at 1:53.567 in the No. 42 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan, which he will share this week with Gustavo Yacaman and Alex Brundle. That time dropped to third once the checkered flag flew.

In 2012, Pla won the LMP2 class pole at Sebring for the FIA World Endurance Championship series opener also with OAK Racing, but then in a Morgan Judd.

Jon Fogarty was best of the Corvette Daytona Prototypes in sixth, driving the No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP. His best time was 1:54.071.

Unfortunately for that car, co-driver Burt Frisselle stopped on track late in the session at Turn 12, with a puncture and left rear quarter panel damage.

Raphael Matos took Performance Tech Motorsports’ No. 38 Oreca FLM09  to the PC class fastest time at 1:56.434. The No. 54 CORE autosport and No. 09 RSR Racing entries were next up.

Three different manufacturers were in the top three of GT Le Mans for most of the session before BMW leapt to the top right at the end, and then Corvette beat them right on its final lap.

Antonio Garcia’s No. 3 Corvette C7.R topped the charts at 1:59.133 with his flier set on his 20th lap of the session. The No. 55 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE was second at 1:59.367, with the sister No. 56 third at 1:59.376.

Porsche was in five of the top seven positions in GT Daytona. Park Place Motorsports’ No. 71, driven by Kevin Estre, Patrick Lindsey, Jim Norman and Mike Vess, set the fastest time at 2:03.449.

James Davison’s No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage in second was one of two interlopers at 2:03.832. Dane Cameron took the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 to fifth at 2:03.971.

The Nos. 73 (Park Place), 23 (Team Seattle/AJR), 44 (Magnus) and 81 (GB Autosport) Porsches were in the remaining positions from third through seventh.

There was an incident between the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS (GTD) and No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia (GTLM). Gianmaria Bruni, Risi’s driver, was evaluated and released from the infield care center. That caused the only red flag interruption of the session.

Qualifying will take place beginning at 4:10 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Session 4