Dickinson Tops Long Beach Practice Sessions

Riley Dickinson topped the times in both Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America practice sessions on Friday at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Following a dominant sweep in Sebring to open the season, the Kellymoss driver set a 1:19.740 benchmark to edge out  MDK Motorports’ Jimmy Llibre by nearly seventh-tenths of a second.

Dickinson was the only driver to dip below the 1 minute, 20-second threshold in his No. 52 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Jason Hart’s No. 20 MDK Porsche completed the top-three, just 0.025 seconds behind his teammate while Tom Sargent (McElrea Racing) and Michael McCarthy (Kellymoss) rounded out the top five.

Pro-Am was led by Efrin Castro in his No. 65 Kellymoss machine, with his teammate Alan Metni second fastest in class.

MDK’s Mark Kvamme set a lap time of 1:21.7762 to lead the Am field.

Track conditions appeared to improve in the 40-minute second practice session as ambient temperatures warmed, with nearly every driver in the field improving on their times from Practice 1.

However, both practice sessions were shortened with red flags.

Scott’s Noble’s Am class No. 10. MDK Porsche ground to a halt in the closing stages of Practice 1, while debris in Turn 5 brought out a brief red with just under 10 minutes remaining in the second session.

While multiple drivers utilized the Turn 1 runoff area, the 35-car field ran relatively cleanly across both sessions.

Qualifying is set to get underway at 4:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. ET).

RESULTS: Practice (Combined)