Long leads GT for Porsche and Flying Lizard

Klaus Graf (pictured) picked up Friday morning where Lucas Luhr left off Thursday evening at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Graf set the best time for Muscle Milk Pickett Racing in the first official practice session for the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge. The German turned a lap of 1:12.185 in the No. 6 Honda Performance Development ARX-03a prototype that is on a four-race win streak in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón.

Graf and Luhr lead the ALMS P1 driver’s championship and are the defending race-winners at Mid-Ohio. Graf went 0.936 seconds quicker than Dyson Racing’s Guy Smith in the No. 16 Lola-Mazda coupe. Smith, last year’s pole-sitter, was more than two seconds clear of Michael Marsal in Dyson Racing’s No. 20 Lola-Mazda.

In GT, Patrick Long was fastest in Flying Lizard Motorsports No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with a lap of 1:20.511 that put him 0.12 seconds ahead of Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin. The top six cars in class were within 0.466 seconds.

Level 5 Motorsports’ Christophe Bouchut was the fastest P2 driver in the No. 055 HPD ARX-03b at 1:15.173 (108.135 mph). He was 0.224 seconds clear of Conquest Racing’s Martin Plowman in the No. 37 Morgan-Nissan.

Colin Braun went quickest in Prototype Challenge in CORE autosport’s No. 05 ORECA FLM09. His lap of 1:17.068 put him 0.049 seconds clear of RSR Racing’s Bruno Junqueira.

The GT Challenge battle was the closest of the session. TRG’s Spencer Pumpelly was the fastest driver following a lap of 1:25.795 (94.747 mph) in the No. 66 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. He was a scant 0.099 seconds ahead of JDX Racing’s Jeroen Bleekemolen in the No. 11 Porsche.

Saturday’s second practice is set for 11:15 a.m. ET with qualifying at 12:25 p.m.