Negri Leads Road America First Practice

Ozz Negri took the Michael Shank Racing No. 60 Ford EcoBoost-powered Riley to the top of the timesheets in Friday’s lone one-hour practice session ahead of this weekend’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship at Road America.

Negri led a Daytona Prototype top three sweep in the Prototype class, with a best lap of 1:58.036

A pair of Corvette DPs were second and third; Ricky Taylor clocked in a 1:58.122 in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry with Richard Westbrook just behind at 1:58.375 in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona car.

Johannes van Overbeek, in fifth, was best of the P2-spec machinery at 1:58.805  – 0.769 of a second off Negri’s pace – in the No. 2 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b.

The rebuilt DeltaWing coupe made it out for 11 laps after early session ECU issues (2:02.730 best time), while the No. 78 Starworks Honda-powered Riley ran 19 laps (2:03.348).

RSR Racing went 1-2 in Prototype Challenge with track debutante Jack Hawksworth fastest in the No. 08 Oreca FLM09 at 2:01.165, just ahead of Bruno Junqueira in the sister No. 09 Oreca FLM09 at 2:01.683. Colin Braun was third in the No. 54 CORE autosport Oreca FLM09 at 2:01.810.

The No. 91 Dodge SRT Viper GTS-R, now back in traditional red-and-white colors after a one-off livery at Indianapolis, led GT Le Mans. Marc Goossens dropped a 2:05.659 to lead the category.

Pierre Kaffer (2:06.485) was second in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia and Dirk Mueller (2:06.542) third in the No. 56 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE.

James Davison uncorked a 2:10.607 right at the end of the session to lead GT Daytona in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage.

Jan Heylen (2:11.574) was second in the No. 58 Snow Racing Porsche 911 GT America with Andy Lally (2:11.601) third in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America.

Second practice runs from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. local time Saturday morning.

RESULTS: Practice 1