Negri Tops Opening Practice in Detroit

Photo: John Dagys

Ozz Negri topped the time charts in the opening practice for Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Detroit’s Belle Isle.

The Michael Shank Racing driver reeled off a 1:26.475 late in the 90-minute session, outpacing the Prototype championship-leading No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Christian Fittipaldi by 0.081 seconds.

Memo Rojas was third quickest with a 1:26.608 lap time, while the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP was fourth, thanks to Jordan Taylor’s 1:26.641 lap, which held as the quickest for much of the session.

Ryan Dalziel managed to put the No. 1 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b fifth and best of the P2 cars, but 0.581 seconds behind the pace-setting DP.

TRG-AMR led the way in the GTD class, with James Davison turning a 1:33.720 on his final flying lap.

The Australian, who is fresh off his first Indy 500, edged out the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS of Spencer Pumpelly by 0.044 seconds.

Andrew Davis was third in class, thanks to a 1:34.345 in his Dempsey Racing Porsche that he’ll share with Brett Sandberg this weekend.

The session saw only one red flag, for the No. 58 Snow Racing Porsche of Madison Snow, who went off in the grass in Turn 7.

Friday’s second and final practice session gets underway at 1:35 p.m. ET.

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