{"id":2609,"date":"2010-02-22T23:34:30","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T04:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=2609"},"modified":"2010-02-22T23:34:30","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T04:34:30","slug":"quick-learners-amr-fastest-on-first-day-of-winter-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/alms\/quick-learners-amr-fastest-on-first-day-of-winter-test\/","title":{"rendered":"QUICK LEARNERS: AMR FASTEST ON FIRST DAY OF WINTER TEST"},"content":{"rendered":"
V12-powered screamer sets pace at Sebring<\/span><\/h5>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for Adrian Fernandez and Aston Martin Racing to find their comfort zone at Sebring International Raceway. The exquisite Aston Martin-powered Lola coupe was the quickest car on the first day of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr\u00f3n\u2019s annual Winter Test at Sebring.<\/p>\n

The two-day test in a warmup for the Series\u2019 2010 opener, the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida.<\/p>\n

The screaming V12-powered Lola-Aston Martin prototype turned a best lap of 1:47.826 (123.532 mph) in the day\u2019s first four-hour session. Fernandez, last year\u2019s LMP2 winner at Sebring, got his first taste of driving the Aston Martin Racing factory car. He is driving with Harold Primat and Stefan M\u00fccke.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the three quickest cars all set their fastest times of the day in the four-hour morning session. Another Lola \u2013 Intersport Racing\u2019s AER-powered Lola B06\/10 was second fastest on the day at 1:48.066 (123.258 mph). The father-son duo of Jon and Clint Field handled most of the driving.<\/p>\n

Patr\u00f3n Highcroft Racing, last year\u2019s LMP1 champion, sat third with a best lap of 1:48.263 (123.034 mph) with its HPD ARX-01c prototype. David Brabham \u2013 a former Sebring class winner \u2013 is driving with new teammate Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti.<\/p>\n

The Patr\u00f3n Highcroft entry was the quickest LMP2 car, followed by Team Cytosport\u2019s Porsche RS Spyder \u2013 driven by Greg Pickett, Klaus Graf and Sascha Maassen \u2013 at 1:49.187 (121.993 mph). Dyson Racing\u2019s Mazda-powered Lola B10\/86 coupe was third at 1:50.261 (120.804 mph). Team regulars Chris Dyson and Guy Smith drove the car with newcomer Andy Meyrick.<\/p>\n

Green Earth Team Gunnar was the quickest of the new Le Mans Prototype Challenge teams at 1:57.131 (113.285 mph)with Gunner Jeannette, Christian Zugel and Elton Julian driving. Each LMPC team has entered an ORECA FLM09 prototype that will race for the first time in North America this year.<\/p>\n

Genoa Racing was second in class with sports car legend Andy Wallace shaking down the car. The Genoa entry\u2019s best time was a 1:57.580 (113.285 mph), nearly a full 0.7 seconds quicker than Primetime Race Group\u2019s entry of Joel Feinberg and Kyle Marcelli.<\/p>\n

In GT2, Risi Competizione\u2019s pairing of Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni went quickest in their Ferrari F430 GT. The Risi squad, which hasn\u2019t lost an endurance race since Sebring 2008, posted a best time of 2:02.286 (108.925 mph).<\/p>\n

The top three were within a second of each other. One of BMW Rahal Letterman Racing\u2019s BMW M3s \u2013 the car of Bill Auberlen and Tommy Milner \u2013 was second with Flying Lizard Motorsports\u2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of defending class champions J\u00f6rg Bergmeister and Patrick Long third.<\/p>\n

In the GT Challenge class, Darrell Carlisle was the quickest driver with a lap of 2:07.902 (104.142 mph) for Kelly Moss racing. Teammate Peter LeSaffre was less than 0.6 seconds back and just ahead of GMG Racing\u2019s Brent Holden.<\/p>\n

Testing continues Tuesday from Sebring starting at 8 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Adrian Fernandez, Aston Martin Racing
\nLola-Aston Martin B09\/86 (LMP1)<\/strong>
\n\u201cI\u2019m very happy; you know it\u2019s a very, very professional team. I\u2019m very happy to be able to extend my career in such a professional team and a brand that has so much history and charisma with the fans. I\u2019m very happy to be here.\u201d Driving a closed-top car: \u201cIt\u2019s very different. Everything looks different inside. You get use to it. But it\u2019s definitely different, and this is my first time in the car and the car is a lot heavier than the P2 car I drove last year. But it\u2019s a lot faster. It sounds beautiful and looks sharp. \u201cI\u2019m enjoying every second of it. I\u2019m very happy. It\u2019s a great team, great drivers, and I\u2019m very happy to work with them. It\u2019s my very first time in the car, I\u2019m not really going the proper speed yet. But I\u2019m working step-by-step, so I\u2019m looking forward to the three-year relationship. \u201cThe last race was Laguna Seca, so it\u2019s been a while since I last tested. I feel good. I\u2019ve been training hard the last month to make sure I\u2019m fit for the test and so far I\u2019m feeling good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shane Lewis, Velox Motorsports
\nPorsche 911 GT3 Cup (GTC)
\n<\/strong>\u201cI think (the GTC Challenge class) is a great concept by the American Le Mans Series. It\u2019s really – what in our times where we\u2019re at with the series – it\u2019s exactly what the series needs. We\u2019re a little bit concerned about the brakes for the 12 Hours. We\u2019re not too sure if a Cup car can compete with the other ones. But all in all, I can do nothing but congratulate ALMS on the concept of the class, and I just can\u2019t wait to get out there and compete in the 12 Hours. \u201cI love winter testing. I\u2019m Floridian so I only live a couple hours away. For me it\u2019s great. A lot of the crew, they\u2019re from Canada and Ohio so they came from everywhere where there is massive amounts of snow. So I think they are happier than I am. It\u2019s a great way to shake all the stuff down and get everything ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Pickett, Team Cytosport
\nPorsche RS Spyder (LMP2)
\n<\/strong>Sebring is notoriously difficult, as everyone knows. We came down here and tested a couple weeks ago. It\u2019s all about getting the car to work over the bumps. It\u2019s very difficult. Other than Le Mans, which we ran a couple of years ago, this is the next most difficult race we\u2019ll run \u2013 much more than even a race like Petit Le Mans. This surface is so challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Sharp, Extreme Speed Motorsports
\nFerrari F430 GT (GT2)
\n<\/strong>\u201cThe Ferrari is really well-balanced and very nice over the bumps compared to some of the other cars I\u2019ve driven here. We\u2019ve all been working hard as a team being brand new. We tested here a few times over the winter and it\u2019s great to be here with other teams on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALMS Winter Entry list<\/a> | ALMS Test Sesion 1<\/a> | ALMS Test Sesion 2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source ALMS, IMSA<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a9 RIF<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

V12-powered screamer sets pace at Sebring \u00a0 It didn\u2019t take long for Adrian Fernandez and Aston Martin Racing to find their comfort zone at Sebring International Raceway. The exquisite Aston Martin-powered Lola coupe was the quickest car on the first day of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr\u00f3n\u2019s annual Winter Test at …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[9],"tags":[184,5264,5334,5350,207,5289,5275,5351,781,5292,37,210,5281,755,752,751,5306,782],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2609"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions\/2615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}