Posted by Rusty RaeSeptember 30, 2010
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BRASELTON, Ga — Marcel Fassler in the No. 9 Audi R15 turned the top time in the morning practice session but no one is really sure what it actually means — except perhaps Audi and Peugeot. The morning session at Road Atlanta for the 13th Annual Petit Le Mans Powered By Mazda2 was flagged off with a light shower on some sections of a drying track. Noone really believes that this is the weather that they will be racing on — so that leaves plenty of conjecture as to the strategy of each of the teams. Fassler’s best lap was .059 seconds faster than the 07 Peugeot 908 HDI FAP that was driven by Marc Gene.
Third fastest in the session was Dindo Capelli in the No. 7 R15 Audi, a teence of 1.5 seconds behind the leader while the 08 Peugeot, driven by Pedro Lamy never really seemed to be “totally on the pipe” fore a complete lap, turned in a best lap that more than 10 seconds off the pace of the leading Audi. Emanuele Piro posted the fourth fastest P1 time in the Drayson Racing Lola Judd a little more than three seconds off the pace of Fassler.
In the highloy comnpetitive GT2 class the two Olivers of the Corvette Team stole the thunder of the rest of the field at Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 Vette peeled off the top time for the class at 1:21.412 while Olivier Beretta in the No. 3 Shark was .155 seconds off the pace set by his teammate. The No. 90 BMW with Andy Priaqulx had the third fastest GT2 time.
Normally an ultra competitive class, it seems obvious that the GT2 teams were doing a wide range of different testing options as Patrick Long in the Flying Lizards Porsche was more than four seconds off the pace and the fastest Ferarri was more than two seconds off the pace. Only 27 of the 45 entries took a turn on the track this morning.
One interesting note is that the Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid with Romain Dumas behind the wheel turned a lap at 1:22.684 seconds. The highly touted “Green Machine” Porsche that uses a KERS system to give it up to 120 extra horses to the front wheels when the system is fully charged has drawn significant interest from media and fans alike.
