Alegra Motorsports’ Spencer Pumpelly was fastest overall in the sole Pirelli World Challenge GT SprintX practice Friday afternoon (May 25). Pumpelly’s quick time was a lap of 52.071 seconds (101.907 mph).
Pumpelly’s lap was nine-hundredths of a second faster than R. Ferri Motorsport’s Ferrari for point leaders Miguel Molina and Toni Vilander. CRP Racing’s Daniel Morad was third quickest in his Mercedes, followed by Wei Lu in the TR3 Racing Ferrari. Lone Star Racing’s Mike Skeen was fifth quickest.
In the Pro-Am class, TruSpeed AutoSport’s Ryan Dalziel was fastest with a lap of 52.805 seconds (100.490 mph), good enough for sixth overall. Dalziel’s lap was six-hundredths of a second faster than the Porsche of Black Swan Racing’s Jeroen Bleekemolen. K-PAX Racing’s Rodrigo Baptista, who swept the two GTS races last year at Lime Rock, was third quickest.
The GT Am-Am and GT Cup classes both only have single entries this weekend. The Squadra Corse Garage Italia Ferrari of Martin Fuentes and Caesar Bacarella showed decent pace, but they lost their fast lap by causing a red flag.
GT teams have to use the chicane, or “Alternate Uphill” in order to bypass the Climbing Turn at Lime Rock. Bacarella missed the chicane and rammed a mobile tire barrier while trying to traverse a tire slalom on the hill. The resulting penalty dropped the No. 07 Ferrari to 12th on the charts. The damage to the Ferrari appeared to be minor, but it still required a tow back to the pits.
PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE GRAND PRIX OF LIME ROCK POWERED BY M GT SPRINTX PRACTICE NO. 1 RESULTS
GT SprintX teams will be back on track Saturday morning at 11:45 a.m. ET for their final practice session of the weekend. Qualifying is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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