Day 2 in the books for IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge

A MORNING SESSION MOSTLY UNDER DAMP CONDITIONS FOLLOWED BY AN AFTERNOON SESSION THAT SAW VERY COMPETITIVE TIMESHEET

IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge driver went out on a ever drying track for practice 3 this morning and only a handful of teams elected to go out during the one hour session.

So overall, times were not very reflective of the competitiveness we are accustomed to.

Nevertheless, it os worth noting that the #33 Bryan Herta Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR went out for about 8 laps at the hands of Mark Wilkins who came out with a time of 2:02.229 that was good enough for second place in the session. More importantly, it was a good 1.5 second quicker than yesterday’s time.

As for AWA Racing, the team opted not to run much logging seven laps overall. Kuno Wittmer achieved a time of 2:06.556 in the McLaren 570S GT4. Same goes for Motorsports In Action who completed 12 laps where Spencer Pigot’s best time was 2:05.729. In comparison, the fastest time (1:55.897) was set by Eric Foss in the #56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT GT4.

James Vance’s team FAST MD RACING did not take part in the session and neither did Kyle Marcelli at KohR Motorsports.

See result of practice 3 here.

The fourth practice session took place in late afternoon and it was a completely different story as the track conditions were back to normal.

As we are moving along in the weekend, teams are fine tuning their cars and getting ready for next weeks 4 hour race. Lap times in session four were very similar to yesterday’s late afternoon session, the difference this time being some of the teams have moved up the order from yesterday.

This has been the case especially for AWA Racing(Orey Fidani/Kuno Wittmer) and FAST MD RACING (James Vance) in GS but also for Mark Wilkins/Harry Gottsacker at Bryan Herta Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian with the New Hyundai Elantra N TCR.

In the GS class, the top three of the session were J. Pesek/C. McCumbee at PF Racing with the Ford Mustang GT4 with the fastest time of 1:54.565. In second place R. Hardwick / J. Heylen with Wright Motorsports’ Porsche 718 Cayman Clubsport GT4 (1:54.715) and in third J. Clay / M. Skeen / N. Galante BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT4 (1:54.791).

Kuno Wittmer/Orey Fidani at AWA Racing came in fourth as Wittmer put in a lap at the end of the session of 1:54.816, only .251 seconds from the fastest time. Sheena Monk gave Motorsports In Action a fifth place with a time of 1:54.882. James Vance, whose team FAST MD RACING has prepared an Audi R8 GT4 came in ninth place with a 1:55.284 lap time. As for Kyle Marcelli, he did not take part in the session.

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Mark Wilkins and teammate Harry Gottsacker are getting to understand the Hyundai Elantra N TCR better as the weekend advances and they made the best of the fourth practice session to close the gap in terms of lap time having finished the session 1.3 seconds from the fastest time recorded by the #5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering of T. Lewis / R. Block in their Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR 2:00.414.

Second place went to #19 VAN DER STEUR RACING Hyundai Veloster N TCR driver by R. van der Steur / D. Dupont with a time of 2:00.998. Then, in third, #73 Honda Civic FK7 TCR of LA Honda World Racing and their drivers M. LaMarra / M. Pombo (2:01.296).

See result of practice 4 here.

Michelin Pilot Challenge teams and drivers have one more practice on the schedule and it will be Sunday morning with a 1h15 minutes session.

Image: Courtesy Jake Galstad / IMSA