American Le Mans Series

Porsches on top tuesday morning at Sebring

© American Le Mans Series

Newcomer Ryan Briscoe posted the fastest time in Tuesday’s opening session of the American Le Mans Series Winter Test at Sebring. Fresh off a contract signing that established him as a Porsche factory pilot, the Australian toured Sebring International Raceway in 1:47.280 in the team’s No. 6 Porsche RS Spyder.^Briscoe will be teaming with defending class champion Sascha Maassen for the full season. Through Tuesday’s two-and-a-half hours the Aussie has acquainted himself rather well. He was 0.22 seconds better than the sister car driven by Emmanuel Collard. The Frenchman is sharing seat time with Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard.

"It really is amazing to drive," Briscoe said. "I thought it was going to be dramatically different than what I’ve driven before. It’s like an open-wheel car with covers on. It’s so quick in the corners."

Porsche actually held the top three positions Tuesday morning. Dyson Racing’s new Porsche RS Spyder, which hit the track for the first time Monday, was just 0.372 seconds off the pace with Andy Wallace and Chris Dyson. The three Acura-powered entries were next with the Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Lola B05/40 fourth overall.

In its first session of the week, Risi Competizione’s Ferrari 430 GT Berlinetta set the pace with factory driver Jaime Melo turning in a 2:01.944. Next in class was the first of the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche Type 997s. The No. 45, being driven by Johannes van Overbeek and defending class champion Jorg Bergmeister, was a half second behind the Ferrari. Tafel Racing’s two Porsches followed in the 2:03 range.

Quotes following the first session:
Jaime Melo, Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GT Berlinetta (GT2)
"We tested in November or December and made a little change to the setup. The biggest difference now is that the car is very good on the bumps and is quite stable. The balance of the car is very close to being the same. Most of the work has been on the shocks."

"We need to do a bit of work (on top-end power). That hopefully will come. We’re planning on doing tire tests the rest of the day and focus on shocks tomorrow."

Andy Wallace, Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2)
"This is my first time in a Porsche prototype. I’ve driven the Bentley, an Audi, Lolas of course and the Creation. The Lola was a very nice car. Every time I sat in it, I had a pretty good feeling. With that being said, I’m just so excited with this car. I have so much praise for Porsche and the engineering and development they represent. I am still gobsmacked with the performance of the car."

"We’ve gotten a lot of help from the Porsche engineers here and are taking some of their suggestions. We also have had some ideas and thoughts from Peter Weston (Dyson engineer). Today we took a little bit of downforce out of the car. The smaller restrictor size is still a bit of an issue. We got a little more straightline speed. We’ll probably go back the other way this afternoon just to make sure we know where we are."

Luis Diaz, Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Lola B05/40-Acura (LMP2)
"(Sebring) is very much like a giant street circuit! We still have some work to do with the dampers to get over the bumps. We also still need to work out on the car to find a little more speed and fix a little bit of understeer.

"The car is very drivable. I think in that department we OK. The car has been very good in all the tests."

Jorg Bergmeister, Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR-Type 997 (GT2)
"I’m pretty happy so far. We’ve made quite a lot of improvements over yesterday. Most of the work has been done to help going over the bumps, particularly in Turns 1 and 17. There is still some work to be done though."{mospagebreak }SESSION 1

1. Penske Motorsports (Briscoe/Maassen), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 1:47.280 (124.161 mph)
2. Penske Motorsports (Collard/Dumas/Bernhard), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 1:47.500 (123.907 mph)
3. Dyson Racing (Wallace/Dyson), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 1:47.652 (123.732 mph)
4. Lowe’s Fernandez Racing (Fernandez/Diaz), Lola B05/40-Acura, 1:49.346 (121.815 mph)
5. Highcroft Racing (Brabham/Johansson/Dayton), Courage C75-Acura (LMP2), 1:49.391 (121.765 mph)
6. Andretti Green Racing (Herta/Franchitti), Courage LC75-Acura (LMP2), 1:49.493 (121.652 mph)
7. Intersport Racing (J. Field/Berry/C. Field), Lola B05/40-AER (LMP2), 1:50.032 (121.056 mph)
8. Risi Competizione (Melo/Mowlem), Ferrari 430 GT Berlinietta (GT2), 2:01.944 (109.230 mph)
9. Flying Lizard Motorsports (van Overbeek/Bergmeister), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 2:02.446 (108.783 mph)
10. Tafel Racing (Henzler/Liddell), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 2:03.689 (107.689 mph)
11. Tafel Racing (Farnbacher/Tafel), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 2:03.863 (107.538 mph)
12. Panoz Team PTG (Maxwell), Panoz Esperante GTLM, 2:04.029 (107.394 mph)
13. Farnbacher Loles (Werner/Zugel), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:04.312 (107.150 mph)
14. Flying Lizard Motorsports (Neiman/Law), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:04.717 (106.802 mph)
15. Panoz Team PTG (Auberlen/Hand), Panoz Esperante GTLM (GT2), 2:04.730 (106.791 mph)
16. Team Trans Sports (Pappas/Fitzgerald/Borcheller/Montoya), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:04.793 (106.737 mph)
17. Robertson Racing (D. Robertson/A. Robertson/Luyendyk Jr.), Panoz Esperante GTLM (GT2), 2:11.983 100.922
18. Autocon Motorsports (Lewis/McMurry/Willman), Lola EX257-AER (LMP1), 2:42.057 (82.193 mph)

(credit: American Le Mans Series)