ALMS

Sears Point: Saturday morning practice report

Leitzinger sets fast time in morning Infineon Raceway session SONOMA, Calif. (July 26, 2003) -- With a fast lap at the end of the session, Butch Leitzinger led the way in Saturday morning's American Le Mans Series practice session for the Infineon ...

Published: Jul 26, 2003, 11:17 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Leitzinger sets fast time in morning Infineon Raceway session

SONOMA, Calif. (July 26, 2003) -- With a fast lap at the end of the session, Butch Leitzinger led the way in Saturday morning's American Le Mans Series practice session for the Infineon Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway.

The State College, Pa., driver posted a lap of 1:23.065 just as the checkered flag ended the 90-minute practice session, the first of two session on today's schedule. Leitzinger drove the Dyson Racing Lola EX257-MG that he will co-drive with James Weaver in Sunday's two-hour, 45-minute sports car race.

Frank Biela of Germany, driving the Infineon Team Joest Audi R8, was second-fastest in the morning session with a lap of 1:24.313 on the 2.53-mile circuit. Biela, who was the fastest in Friday's unofficial test session, will co-drive with Marco Werner. JJ Lehto set the third-fastest time of 1:24.556 in the ADT Champion Racing Audi R8 that he will share with Johnny Herbert.

Fourth-fastest was the second Dyson Racing Lola-MG driven by Chris Dyson and Andy Wallace at 1:24.880, followed by the Doran Lista Racing Dallara-MG of Didier Theys and Bill Auberlen at 1:26.093. Auberlen replaced original co-driver Fred Lienhard, Sr., who became ill.

The two Dyson cars are from the LMP 675 class for smaller, less powerful Prototypes, while the two Audis and the Dallara are in the LMP 900 class.

Leading the intensely-competitive GTS class in the morning practice session was Tomas Enge of the Czech Republic in the Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello, turning a fast lap of 1:31.449 very late in the session. Enge came back after a multiple-spin incident during the session in the car he will share with Peter Kox.

The second Prodrive Ferrari of David Brabham and Jan Magnussen was second in the session at 1:32.040, followed by the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R of Oliver Gavin and Kelly Collins at 1:32.165. The second factory Corvette of Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell was fourth at 1:32.383 with the Team Olive Garden Ferrari of Mimmo Schiattarella and Emanuele Naspetti fifth at 1:34.004.

Jorg Bergmeister of Germany set the fastest time in the GT class with a lap of 1:36.873 in the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RS that he will share with Timo Bernhard. Second in the session was The Racers Group Porsche of Kevin Buckler and Cort Wagner at 1:37.397, followed by the second Job Porsche of Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr at 1:37.399.

ALMS teams will have one hour of practice starting at 1:45 p.m. (PDT), with qualifying set to begin at 3 p.m. The American Le Mans Series Radio Web will have live coverage online and IMSA Timing & Scoring will be working during the practice and qualifying sessions.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Sears Point: BMW Team PTG Friday notes

Next article Sears Point warmup times

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 6 min

GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen

13 Autosport retains unchanged lineup for 2027 IMSA campaign, eyes global expansion

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 24 min

13 Autosport retains unchanged lineup for 2027 IMSA campaign, eyes global expansion

Bourdais, Moss headline second batch of Sebring's 75 all-time greatest drivers

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 41 min

Bourdais, Moss headline second batch of Sebring's 75 all-time greatest drivers

IndyCar driver and Fox Sports reporter Jack Harvey announces cancer diagnosis

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 50 min

IndyCar driver and Fox Sports reporter Jack Harvey announces cancer diagnosis

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts