The Lime Rock Friday morning practice session was held in wet conditions. Photo credit: Rick Dole for Michelin North America

After four races contested in Florida, California (twice) and Utah, the first session on the East Coast this season for the American Le Mans Series ran entirely in the wet. Still, the 30 cars at Lime Rock Park this weekend managed to navigate the 1.53-mile road course almost entirely without incident. Just one red flag interrupted the one-hour session.

Compared to last year’s pole positions, times were more than 15 seconds slower for prototypes and about 10 seconds off for GT. If the rain intensifies enough to cancel qualifying, the morning practice times would set the grid for Saturday’s two-hour, 45-minute race. The times were a lot closer between prototype and GT than in normal dry conditions.

Klaus Graf set the fastest time overall and in LMP in the Muscle Milk Team CytoSport Porsche RS Spyder with a quickest time of 1:02.289. David Brabham in the Patron Highcroft Racing HPD ARX 01-c was next at 1:02.358, which pales in comparison to last year’s pole time set by teammate Simon Pagenaud at 46.971 seconds.

GT saw the top six cars come in pairs – two Ferraris, two Corvettes and two Porsches, with the fastest BMW seventh. The Risi Ferraris, No. 62 and 61 with Gianmaria Bruni and Mika Salo setting the quickest times, led at 1:04.008 and 1:04.245. Corvette came in positions 3 and 4 with cars 4 and 3, then the No. 17 Porsche and No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche.