Honda Fastest In Final Day Of Sebring Test As Olivier Pla Leads Two-Day Session For Michael Shank Ra
A change of teams found Olivier Pla back in familiar territory at Sebring International Raceway during Friday’s final day of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship testing. Pla, the 2015 TOTAL Pole Award winner for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida for Krohn Racing, today paced the lead Prototype class in a Honda Ligier JS P2 for Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian.
The French driver ran a lap of 1:51.546 (120.704 mph) in the No. 60 Tire Kingdom entry to lead the two-day session, the final preparation for the 64th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida on Saturday, March 19, which is Round 2 for both the WeatherTech Championship and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.
“The track feels very different from last year, so we are trying different things setup wise,” Pla said. “I don’t think there is anything we can extract from here last year, so we are working hard for the race. We’re making progress, and we’re happy with the test. Yesterday the car was a little hard to drive, so we made it a little bit more comfortable. We still have work to do, but we’re getting there.”
DragonSpeed’s new No. 81 Nissan ORECA 05 was second, with Nicolas Lapierre running a lap of 1:51.661 (120.579 mph), while Corvette DPs took the next three positions.
Ryan Dalziel was third with a lap of 1:51.672 (120.567 mph) in the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP, followed by Action Express Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque at 1:51.791 (120.439 mph) in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling machine and the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor with a best lap of 1:52.029 (120.183 mph).
CORE autosport led Prototype Challenge (PC) for the second straight day, with the No. 54 Flex-Box/Composite Resources ORECA FLM09 running a fast lap of 1:54.087 (118.015 mph). Second was the Daytona-winning No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA FLM09 shared by Chris Miller, Misha Goikhberg, Stephen Simpson and Kenton Koch with a best lap of 1:54.595 (117.492 mph).
Both GT classes saw the fastest lap of the test recorded on Friday. Dirk Werner led GT Le Mans (GTLM) with a lap of 1:58.705 in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM, while Alessandro Balzan paced GT Daytona (GTD), running 2:01.342 in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 co-driven by Christina Nielsen and Jeff Segal. GTD saw all 17 cars unofficially better ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper GT3-R driver Jeroen Bleekemolen’s year-old track record of 2:03.485 (109.033 mph) during the Friday morning session, with the top 14 cars within one second.
• Jupiter, Florida-based DragonSpeed tested in the Prototype class for the first time with a Nissan ORECA 05. Henrik Hedman and Nicolas Minassian were joined at the test by Nicolas Lapierre, who won the LMP2 class at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans in a similar ORECA. Second fastest of the 10 Prototypes, DragonSpeed was only 0.115 seconds off the fastest lap.
“It was a great feeling, winning the first time I was here,” said Lapierre, who won the 2011 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring overall for in a Peugeot for Team ORECA Matmut. “Now I’ll try to repeat it in a few weeks. Winning was very special for me – I remember the podium and everything. I’m happy to be back here – it’s a nice track and nice atmosphere – always a pleasure to race here.
“It’s exciting being here – there are a lot of cars on track, and the competition is so tight. I think we’ll have a strong package for the race. Racing here in America is cool and exciting, and I would love to do more races here.”
• Even though the team wound up third fastest for the test, Ryan Dalziel was happy seeing his No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP atop the speed chart for much of Friday morning’s four-hour session.
“We were happy with the podium finish, a reliable car and good pit stops at Daytona, but we were disappointed with our speed [in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona],” said Dalziel, who co-drove at the test with Marc Goossens. “We came here with a new package. We have the legs now with speed, and it was nice to see us leading part of the morning session. We’ll keep working to get the car tuned a little bit better. We’ve got a good start and we’re really looking forward to the race.”
• Carlos de Quesada’s Alegra Motorsports brought a new car to the test, the No. 24 Insync BMW Riley DP. Joining de Quesada were Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Daytona winner Billy Johnson and Daniel Morad, a former Red Bull Junior Driver who races with de Quesada in the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Canada.by Yokohama. This is an ex-Starworks Motorsport car, which won the 2013 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race at Road America.
• CORE autosport led all four PC sessions, unofficially bettering the existing track record in the process.
“We’ve been spending most of our time working through a lot of parts and pieces, getting the new electronics working,” said driver Colin Braun. “We’ve haven’t spent much time on our car setup. Obviously, we’ve got a fast race car, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from these guys. We had a rod break at Daytona, which was unusual and disappointing. We’ve got to keep our heads down. Hopefully we’ll have good luck here and claw our way back into the championship.”
• Coming off a podium finish at the Rolex 24, BAR1 Motorsports is working with a new team manager/sporting director in veteran Steve Newey. Johnny Mowlem, Tomy Drissi and Marc Drumwright shared driving duties at the test in the No. 20 ORECA. Matt McMurry – who will run in five sprint races with Mowlem later in the season – also ran a few laps in the car after getting out of the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche GT3 R he will race at Sebring.
“Right now, CORE autosport has its act together, and they have the advantage for the race,” said Mowlem, who will be doing extensive testing in Europe prior to returning to Sebring. “We’re trying different stuff and hope we can do well. You never know what will happen in a 12-hour race.”
• Pipo Derani, Rolex 24 At Daytona overall winner with Tequila Patrón ESM, returned to the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Honda Ligier JS P2 with Ed Brown, Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek.
“It’s my first time here, so I’m using it to learn this track, which is not so easy - so far so good,” Derani said. “Honestly, it feels the same to me. I wake up at the same time and do everything the same. At the end of the day, I’m the same guy and still have my feet on the ground. It’s pretty amazing to win that race with these guys, but life goes on and hopefully I can achieve a lot more.”
Contact:
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