Pla Tops Opening Practice at Road Atlanta

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Olivier Pla topped the time charts in opening practice for Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-ending Petit Le Mans.

Pla took his No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda to a best lap of 1:14.157 in the 60-minute session, edging out the No. 55 Mazda Prototype of Jonathan Bomarito by 0.539 seconds.

Eric Curran was third quickest in the Prototype championship-leading No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette DP.

Renger van der Zande led the way in Prototype Challenge in his No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Oreca FLM09.

GT Le Mans saw the No. 3 Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia quickest with a 1:18.840, while Alex Riberas led the way in GT Daytona in the No. 23 The Heart of Racing/AJR Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The session saw two red flags, the first for the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, which briefly stopped at pit-out, and a separate incident for the No. 88 Starworks Motorsport PC car.

Practice 2 gets underway at 3:25 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