Halfway through the final day of the American le Mans Series Winter Test at Sebring International Raceway, All the cars have hit the track, and most are beginning to show their true potentials.
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing finally got its LMP1 HPD ARX-03a to run reliably, and by the end of the session it was fastest overall with a lap of 1:50.440 at 120.608—1.223 seconds quicker than the fastest P2, Scott Tucker’s 055 HPD ARX-03b. A far cry from the 1:46.571 Stéphane Sarrazin set in a Peugeot 908 in 2011, but headed in the right direction.
Ferrari still owned GT: the Michelotto car, 29, was top of the roster with a lap of 2:00.061 at 110.94, ahead of the two ESM Ferraris. Fourth in class was the 45 Flying Lizard Porsche, .833 behind the leader and only .04 seconds behind the third-place ESM 02.
Flying Lizard Patrick Long said the team was making steady progress with the new car, and that the improved aero made the new Porsche GT3 RSR vastly more stable on the bad bumps through Turns 1 and 17.
The top four in GT were all lapping faster that Giani Bruni’s 2011 qualifying lap of 201.561—the wider track and wider tires of the 2012 GTs have made the old records irrelevant.
Corvette and BMW were relegated to fifth and sixth in class, ahead of the Krohn Ferrari and all the other Porsches.
In LMPC, the Dempsey Racing Oreca led the field by .785 seconds, with PR1 Mathiasen, Core # 06, and Muscle Milk trailing. It bodes well for the new team that it leads a field full of experienced drivers and crews already familiar with the car.
