Lewis, Nielsen In Close Pursuit Of Teen Rookie
Jesse Lazare is the only full-time driver from Canada in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, and he put that local knowledge to good use Friday to lead the opening day of practice at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Lazare, 17, from Montreal, turned a top lap of 1 minute, 20.565 seconds in the No. 31 Door Doctor/Moorespeed Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car during the afternoon practice.
Series rookie Lazare is a three-time Canadian karting champion who considers the 10-turn, 2.459-mile circuit at CTMP as his home track. Fellow series rookie Michael Lewis was just behind Lazare in second on the speed charts, with a top lap of 1:20.584 during the morning session in the No. 98 Competition Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian entry. Lewis is third in the championship with two victories this season. Another series rookie, Christina Nielsen, benefited from track knowledge with the third-best time of the day, 1:20.935, this morning in the No. 25 NGT Motorsport Porsche. Denmark native Nielsen competed in the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin season opener in May at CTMP to learn the circuit during her first season of racing in North America. Sloan Urry was fourth overall at 1:20.985 during the afternoon practice in the No. 20 JDX Racing 911 GT3 Cup car, while Michael Schein rounded out the top five at 1:21.073 in his best lap from the afternoon session in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports entry. Platinum Cup championship leader Colin Thompson was eighth overall at 1:21.199 in the No. 14 Kelly Moss/Porsche of Bucks County entry. His closest pursuer, Angel Benitez Jr., was seventh at 1:21.171 in the No. 05 Formula Motorsport/Avid Motorsport Porsche. Thompson leads the championship standings, 116-112, over Benitez. Lewis is third with 102 points.
Qualifying starts at 10:35 a.m. Friday. Two 45-minute races are scheduled. Round 9 of the season starts at 5:40 p.m. Friday, with Round 10 at 10:10 a.m. Saturday. Both races will be streamed live at FansChoice. TV and live updates on all on-track sessions will be provided @IMSALive on Twitter.
For more information about Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, visit www.gt3cupchallengeusa.com