Matt Campbell and Porsche picked up where he left off in summer testing at IMS, driving the number 7 Team Penske Porsche to the top speed in in IMSA Weather Tech’s first practice session. His fast lap was 1:14.184. Porsche was very strong in the test at IMS.

Jack Hawksworth led the GTD Pro class in a Vasser Sullivan Lexus with a lap of 1:23.636. Hawksworth has driven this course when he competed in the Indycar series.

The other class leaders:

LMP2-Mikkel Jensen TDS Racing Oreca 1:17.231

LMP3-Garrett Grist JrIII Racing Ligier 1:20.737

GTD Patrick Gallagher Turner Motorsport BMW 1:24.019

The serioes has one more practice beginning at 8:55 tomorrow morning before qualifying starts at 1 pm.

Notes

Attendance was decent for a Friday in September. I have not heard any word on ticket sales, but I think the weekend will see a good crowd. The weather was just perfect for racing today and it is expected to continue the rest of the weekend.

The pit configuration is similar to Formula 1. The temporary grandstands behind the pits are not in place. IMSA teams have a lot of equipment. The walkway behind the pits is very tight.

Shortly after my last post in which I said I did not see anyone I knew, I did something about it. I went back to Pagoda Plaza and found two people I recognized from Twitter, @Indynathan and @GasolineAly. We talked for awhile and visited the Toronto Motorsports trailer. problem solved.

By the way Toronto Motorsports has an amazing diecast inventory of classic sports cars. If you come to IMS this weekend, check them out.

This will do it for me for today. Michelin Pilot Challenge has a practice at 7:15 this evening. I’m excited to see how this track performs at night. No lights have been added to the track.