By Tarek Ramchani
The action has started at Sebring International Raceway. The Florida circuit is hosting the 62nd Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, round two of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. The Audi squad is represented by five Audi R8 LMS cars from four diffrent teams.
The Audi cars performed well in the three free practice sessions of the day. In the first session the best ranked Audi was the #45 from Flying Lizard Motorsports. The car in the hands of Nelson Canache Jr., Spencer Pumpelly, Markus Winkelhock and Alessandro Latif finished fifth within the GT Daytona class with a best time of 2:05.738. All the other Audi R8 LMS cars were outside the top 10. The #32 car from GMG Racing driven by James Sofronas, Alex Welch and Marc Basseng was fifteenth. The #35 Audi from Flying Lizards of Dion von Moltke, Seth Neiman and Filipe Albuquerque was sixteenth. The #46 Audi from Fall-Line Motorsports with drivers Christopher Mies, Charles Putman and Charles Espenlaub was twenty-third. The #48 Audi from Paul Miller Racing did not take part in the session.
First free practice session results can be seen HERE
In the second session, only a single Audi R8 LMS car made it into the top 10 within the GT Daytona class. The #45 entry from Flying Lizard Motorsport again the best ranked Audi car, finishing ninth. Nelson Canache Jr., Spencer Pumpelly, Markus Winkelhock and Alessandro Latif with a fastest lap time of 2:05.979. The #48 Audi R8 LMS from Paul Miller Racing was fourteenth. The #46 car from Fall-Line Motorsports was nineteenth. The #32 R8 LMS from GMG Racing was twentieth and the #35 entry from Fluing Lizard Motorsport was twenty-first.
Second free practice session results can be seen HERE.
The third and final free practice session of the day was a night session. As was the case in the first two sessions, only one Audi car was among the top 10 in GT Daytona. The #46 from Fall-Line Motorsports was ninth. The blue livered Audi R8 LMS driven by Christopher Mies, Charles Putman and Charles Espenlaub with a best time of 2:06.042. The #45 Audi from Flying Lizard Motorsports was eleventh. The #32 car from GMG Racing was sixteenth. The #35 R8 LMS from Flying Lizard Motorsports was eighteenth and the #48 effort from Paul Miller Racing was twenty-third.
Third free practice session results can be seen HERE.
Looking at the lap times and teams' performances in all three practice session, it was a positive day 1 for the Audi Sport customer racing squad at Sebring. GT Daytona is clearly the most demanding class in all four divisions in TUDOR United SportsCar Championship with extremly balanced field with very strong brands and teams.
The Audi teams will be back on track today for a final free practice session followed by qualifying this Friday.
Photo credit: IMSA
