Simpson, JDC-Miller Top Friday at Road America

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

A late flyer by Stephen Simpson has put JDC-Miller Motorsports on top of the time sheets in a mixed-condition opening day of track activity for Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America.

Simpson took his No. 85 Oreca 07 Gibson to a flying lap of 1:55.057 late in the afternoon’s 60-minute session, which was run in dry conditions.

It was 0.104 seconds quicker than the No. 5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Joao Barbosa, with teammate Dane Cameron third in the No. 31 Cadillac.

Olivier Pla set the fourth quickest time in Practice 2 in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 Gibson, with Friday morning’s pace-setting Ligier, debuting this weekend in the hands of Visit Florida Racing, only able to muster the 8th quickest time with Marc Goossens.

The morning session was run in mostly damp conditions after intermittent showers all day at the Wisconsin circuit.

The No. 66 Ford GT of Dirk Mueller was quickest in the GT Le Mans class, thanks to a 2:03.967 lap time that was 0.026 seconds quicker than Antonio Garcia’s No. 3 Corvette C7.R.

Colin Braun, meanwhile, led the way in GT Daytona, having reeled off a 2:06.963 lap in his No. 54 CORE autosport Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Performance Tech Motorsports’ Pato O’Ward was quickest in Prototype Challenge, some 1.8 seconds clear of the fastest BAR1 Motorsports entry this weekend.

All 35 cars turned laps in the afternoon, after both the No. 57 Stevenson Motorpsorts Audi R8 LMS and No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi sat out the mixed-condition morning session.

A final 60-minute practice session is scheduled for 8:55 a.m. CT, followed by qualifying.

RESULTS: Practice 2

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