Negri Fastest Again in Second Practice at Monterey

The conditions were slightly different but the overall leader was the same following the second one-hour TUDOR United SportsCar Championship practice session Friday afternoon at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Ozz Negri lowered the bar from his best morning time of 1:20.077, to go more than a second quicker at 1:19.028 in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda to end fastest on Friday for this weekend’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda.

Negri will share the car with longtime co-driver John Pew, at the track where Pew made his prototype debut in 2007.

Negri just edged Jordan Taylor, in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP, by just 0.008 of a second with Taylor’s best lap clocking in at a 1:19.036.

Joey Hand also got into the 1:19 bracket in the second practice, at 1:19.976 in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford.

The three remaining Corvette DPs clocked in fourth through sixth.

RSR Racing led its second straight session in Prototype Challenge, with Bruno Junqueira improving from a 1:21.727 in the morning to a 1:21.046 in the afternoon in the No. 11 Oreca FLM09.

Porsche led the way in both GT Le Mans and GT Daytona.

Joerg Bergmeister set a best time of 1:23.217 in the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR to lead GTLM; the top five in class, covering Porsche, Ferrari and BMW, were covered by 0.462 of a second.

The No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America, in the hands of Patrick Lindsey and Spencer Pumpelly, led in GTD at 1:27.194. In GTD, the top 10 of 11 cars were separated by 0.944 of a second, with only the second Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R outside that gap.

Two red flags flew in the session for two cars stopped on course. The No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Oreca FLM09 stopped in the Corkscrew and the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America stopped in Turn 3.

Next up for the TUDOR Championship is third practice, from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. Saturday morning.

RESULTS: Practice 2