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PIRRO/AUDI, FIELD/LOLA, GAVIN/CORVETTE, AND BERNHARD/PORSCHE FASTEST IN ALMS TEST - AUBERLEN AND REESE FASTEST IN SPEED WORLD CHALLENGE - YOUTH PREVAILS IN PACIFIC F2000 RACE - MATOS AND DONOSO FASTEST MAZDA'S.
ADT Champion Racing Audi driver EMANUELE PIRRO was fastest Friday afternoon for the American Le Mans Series Test Session at Infineon Raceway in preparation for this weekend's Infineon Technologies Grand Prix of Sonoma presented by Ravenswood Winery. Pirro's time was 1m 22.635s/110.220 mph in #2 ADT/Champion/Audi Sport NA/S Line/Ansul Michelin Audi R8. His co-driver is FRANK BIELA.
The weather was warm and sunny with a slight breeze, the skies were blue and cloudless, and the session went well with no agro. All 24 entries in the four ALMS classes were on track during the extended session, which included time alone for the prototypes and for the GT classes, as well as one all-inclusive segment.
For a long time one of the two Dyson Racing Lola EX257 AER cars was on top, driven by CHRIS DYSON and BUTCH LEITZINGER and that was the way the Prototype session ended. However, when all four of the ALMS classes ran together, one of Champion's two Audi R8 cars got back on top.
Between the Champion and Dyson teams, they make up four of the five LMP1 cars in the class. The fifth team is Autocon Motorsports with MICHAEL LEWIS and BRYAN WILLMAN in a Riley & Scott MRK IIIC.
Tops in the LMP2 field was CLINT FIELD, who drives for his father's Intersport Racing team in a Lola B05/40 AER, with a 1m 27.757s/103.787 mph-good enough for fifth overall. Field's co-driver this weekend in #37 Very Berry Exotics/Marquis Financial Lola is LIZ HALLIDAY, an American driver who has been living in England for years pursuing her love of all kinds of horsepower, the motorised type and the four-legged type. She hopes to run two more ALMS races this season - Petit Le Mans and the season's finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. There are three P2 cars this weekend.
