Noaker Leads First Le Mans Invitational Practice

Robert Noaker set the pace in the first Mustang Challenge practice session of the weekend at the Circuit de la Sarthe to start off track action at the inaugural Le Mans Invitational.

The Robert Noaker Racing frontman laid down a 4:20.174 lap time in his No. 13 Mustang Dark Horse R to pace the bumper 39-car field by a comfortable 4.554 seconds.

Second-fastest was the No. 92 Dark Horse class Ryan McLeod Racing Cars Mustang of Cameron McLeod, ahead of Spark Performance’s Alex Bachoura, who proved fastest of the Dark Horse Legends competitors and finished the session in third overall.

Will Lucas was third quickest in the prematurely red-flagged 45-minute practice session with the shared Dark Horse Stars entry of Chris Harris and Sir Chris Hoy rounding out the overall top five for Academy Motorsport.

Due to a lingering Slow Zone in place following the morning’s Porsche Sprint Challenge practice session, first practice began five minutes late, and while it was set to run for the originally allotted 45 minutes, a red flag in the closing stages brought out an early end to track running.

Multiple cars stopped on track during the session, resulting in local yellows around the 8.467-mile circuit.

All three Competition Motors cars separately ground to a halt on track during first practice, with Tom McGlynn and Ford CEO Jim Farley unable to continue, while Ton Tait was able to rejoin the field.

Later on, NV Autosport’s Stephen Vajda found the gravel trap out of Dunlop, before a warning on track for “slippery material” on the run to the Porsche Curves preceded a red flag which ended the session a few minutes early.

Practice 2 for the 39-car is scheduled for this afternoon at 5:30 p.m. CEST ahead of qualifying for this weekend’s pair of rounds tomorrow.

RESULTS: Practice 1