Taylor Tops First Practice at Road Atlanta

Jordan Taylor led a Corvette DP top-three sweep in Thursday’s opening one-hour practice for Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda, final round of the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Taylor set an early best time of 1:15.087 in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry to lead the way.

The points-leading No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP was second (1:15.177) with the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP third (1:15.396). Joao Barbosa and Michael Valiante, respectively, set the best lap times.

Back after missing Circuit of the Americas and completing some testing, the revised DeltaWing coupe clocked in an impressive fourth fastest at 1:15.661 with Andy Meyrick driving. The team has a new splitter and other aero upgrades this race.

The No. 42 OAK Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda clocked only eight laps in the session, and ended ninth at 1:16.887.

Colin Braun led the Prototype Challenge contingent in the No. 54 CORE autosport Oreca FLM09 at 1:16.791, best for eighth overall. BAR1′s No. 87 and 8Star’s No. 25 were next.

Wolf Henzler was fastest in GT Le Mans in the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR at 1:19.270. The No. 912 Porsche North America entry was second ahead of the No. 3 Corvette C7.R, No. 911 Porsche and No. 91 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R. The top five in class were separated by only 0.340 of a second.

Leh Keen led a Porsche 911 GT America top three sweep in GT Daytona, in the No. 22 Alex Job Racing entry with a best time of 1:22.363, ahead of the No. 58 Snow Racing/Dempsey Racing and No. 44 Magnus Racing entries.

The one-hour session ran without any red flag interruptions. Second practice runs from 2:10 to 3:10 p.m. this afternoon.

RESULTS: Practice 1