Houston: Friday warmup report

PENSKE ATOP SPEED CHART IN HOUSTON WARMUP

Houston (May 12, 2006) - Penske Racing's two Porsche RS Spyders went 1-2 in Friday's warmup for the Lone Star Grand Prix, with Lucas Luhr leading the way in the No. 6 entry.

The German Porsche factory driver, unbeaten in six previous Series street events, turned a fast lap of 1:06.036 at Reliant Park to best Romain Dumas in the No. 7 car by 0.24 seconds. Only once in the eight-year history of the American Le Mans Series has a P2/P675 car won an overall race in the Series - Dyson Racing at Infineon in 2003. Penske Racing is trying to become the first P2 team to go 1-2 in a Series race.

The fastest LMP1 entry was the No. 2 Audi R8 of Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish at 1:06.768. The Audi was 1.373 seconds quicker than the No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola B06/10-AER. In GT1, Stephane Sarrazine and Aston Martin Racing's No. 009 Aston Martin DBR9 set the pace with a 1:09.079, a narrow 0.229 seconds over Corvette Racing's No. 4 Corvette C6.R.

And in GT2 Porsche topped the speed charts for the first time this week, courtesy of Mike Rockenfeller and Alex Job Racing. Rockenfeller turned a lap of 1:11.987 to best the No. 21 BMW Team PTG BMW M3, which was at 1:12.260.

-alms-