Westbrook Leads Opening COTA TUSC Practice

Richard Westbrook led the opening 60-minute practice for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship portion of the Lone Star Le Mans weekend.

Driving the No. 90 Corvette DP, Westbrook’s early session time of 2:00.306 was best of the bunch. Daytona Prototypes-spec cars were positions 1-5.

Ozz Negri brought the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford into second at 2:00.387.

Westbrook’s fellow Corvette DPs, the Nos. 5 and 10 Action Express and Wayne Taylor Racing entries, were third and fifth with the No. 01 Riley-Ford from Chip Ganassi Racing interloping in fourth.

Johannes van Overbeek in the No. 2 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b led the P2-spec cars in P6 overall with the debuting No. 42 Ligier JS P2 HPD of OAK Racing, driven by Gustavo Yacaman and Alex Brundle, seventh. Van Overbeek’s best time was 2:01.338 with the Ligier at 2:01.406.

Gunnar Jeannette led the Prototype Challenge contingent at 2:02.453 in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca FLM09. The RSR Racing pair was second and third.

Porsche North America went 1-2-3 in GT Le Mans with the No. 910 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Patrick Pilet and Fred Makowiecki leading the timesheets at 2:04.844. The Nos. 912 and 911 were second and third.

The No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R and No. 55 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE were fourth and fifth, also within a second.

James Davison went to the top of GT Daytona near the end of the session in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage at 2:09.815.

Behind him, the revised Porsche 911 GT America dominated in GT Daytona, with Andrew Davis in the No. 27 Dempsey Racing entry leading the charge in second at 2:10.055.

Although Dane Cameron and Spencer Pumpelly were third and fourth in a BMW and Audi, respectively, Porsches made up spots 5-11 from there. Cameron’s Turner Motorsport squad runs No. 300 this weekend in honor of its 300th professional start.

The one-hour session ran caution-free.

Second practice runs Friday morning from 9 to 10 a.m. CT and local time.

RESULTS: Practice 1