ELKHART, LAKE, Wis. – Welcome to Road America, Mr. McNish. In his first visit to this classic road course, Allan McNish set the fastest time in a two-hour test session for the American Le Mans Series' Generac 500 at Road America on Friday.
In the LMP1 championship-leading Audi R10 TDI, the Scot turned a lap of 1:51.455. His time was a half second better than Butch Leitzinger's track qualifying record from 2004. McNish and Dindo Capello enter the seventh round of the American Le Mans Series with the P1 drivers championship lead, having won five of the first six class races.
"It's a bit easy to go fast here because the flow is so natural and the turns are quick," McNish said. "But to very quick (consistently) will be very difficult. You really have to be perfect on the brakes, throttle and steering. The track is very natural, definitely out of the old school. It's already among my favorite tracks in North America."
Next was the other diesel-powered Audi of Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela, defending race winners and Series champions. Their time of 1:52.698 was 0.8 seconds better than Dyson Racing's James Weaver and Leitzinger, who were fifth overall.
First in LMP2 and third overall was Timo Bernhard in the No. 6 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder. For the first time this year, Bernhard will team with Sascha Maassen as Penske and Porsche have stepped up their pursuit of Intersport Racing for the class drivers championship.
The other Penske Porsche of Romain Dumas and Lucas Luhr was second to Bernhard, just 0.329 seconds back. Intersport's Lola B05/40-AER of Clint and Jon Field and Liz Halliday was third in P2 at 1:54.876. Clint Field and Halliday lead Maassen and Luhr by 5 points in the drivers title chase entering the weekend.
In GT1, one of Aston Martin Racing's Aston Martin DBR9s posted the best time, courtesy of Stephane Sarrazin in the No. 009 entry. The Frenchman's time of 2:02.072 put him in front of class championship leaders Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin of Corvette Racing.
The defending race winners were less than 0.2 second in arrears of the Sarrazin/Pedro Lamy entry. The other Corvette, of Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell, was just 0.043 seconds behind their teammates.
Mike Rockenfeller's late run in the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR set the fast time in GT2, a 2:05.465 effort that was 0.184 seconds better than the Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long. Alex Job Racing and Petersen/White Lightning put on a phenomenal show last year with Long and Bergmeister finishing 0.298 seconds ahead of Bernhard and Dumas, the closest GT2 finish in Series history.
Next up Friday was the first of the two Risi Competizione Ferrari F430GTs. The No. 62 entry of Mario Dominguez and Stephane Ortelli were at 2:09.106 as Risi seeks its third straight class win.
There were two red-flag periods Friday. One was for Andy Wallace, who went off in the Highcroft Racing Lola at Turn 2. The Lola's brakes locked up as he entered the braking zone and overcorrected as he went off on the right side. The problem wasn't considered very serious, but the car didn't make it back on the track during the afternoon.
Neither did the No. 007 Aston Martin DBR9, which faced a much bigger problem after Tomas Enge lost control under braking in Turn 5 and impacted the retaining wall on the left side as the car spun backward. The damage didn't look too serious, but the underneath told another story. The left-rear chassis subframe and suspension both were bent as a long night awaited the crew.
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