Noaker Paces Practice 1 at Road America

Robert Noaker led the way in a red flag-interrupted first practice session of the Mustang Challenge weekend at Road America on Thursday.

The Dark Horse class points leader and Ford Performance Junior Team driver reeled off at 2:20.005 benchmark time in his No. 13 Robert Noaker Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse R on his fifth of eight total laps around the 4.048-mile road course.

Fourteen minutes into practice, Corbin Collins went off track in Turn 11, resulting in a red flag for debris left at the Kink.

With the practice resumed in the final minutes, drivers only had enough time for one more flying lap before taking the checkered flag.

Noaker went off track on his final attempt as the session ended, but continued without incident and maintained his session-topping time.

Last year’s race winner, Sam Paley, was second fastest overall in the No. 26 Paley Motorsport entry, 2.885 seconds down on Noaker’s pace. Collins, meanwhile, was third-quickest overall, despite bringing out the red flag.

The McCumbee McAleer Racing driver locked in his quick time a lap before going off track.

Zachary Lee was fourth fastest overall, setting the best Dark Horse Legends class time, with Spark Performance’s Alex Bachoura rounding out the overall top five in his No. 33 DHL machine.

While 19 competitors are listed on the entry list, only 18 took to the track for first practice, with Colin Harrison not turning any laps in the 30-minute session in the No. 21 TechSport Mustang.

Practice 2 takes place at 9:15 a.m. CST on Friday, ahead of qualifying, which is scheduled for 3:50 p.m. CST that afternoon.

RESULTS: Practice 1