IndyCar champ Scott Dixon and Corvette star Oliver Gavin set the pace during night practice at Sebring International Raceway  as teams closed out the opening day at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Dixon actually set the overall fastest time of the day during the morning when he stopped the clocks at 1 minute, 52.357 seconds.

IndyCar drivers actually set the top three times in night practice and grabbed four of the top five spots. Sebastien Bourdais and Justin Wilson were second and third fastest while Simon Pagenaud’s HPD LMP2 entry from Extreme Speed Motorsports from fifth fastest.

The night practice had a number of disruptions with four red flag stoppages

“Obviously, it’s never a bad thing unloading fast off the truck and we were pleased pacing the opening session,” Dixon said.

“The Ganassi team has done a great job, both in testing and getting the Prototype where it needed to be since the Rolex 24 At Daytona.”

After teammate Ryan Briscoe set the pace at the 41 minute mark, Gavin stole the top spot with a lap of 2 minutes, .057 seconds – just failing to break the two minute mark.

This was strong enough to hold on to the checkered flag.  BMW drivers John Edwards and Joey Hand were second and third fastest.

Matteo Malluceli set the overall fastest time of the day in the morning session at 1 minute, 59.394 seconds.

“We are confident for Saturday, because we are on a good pace and the car is quite good,” Malucelli said.

“We know that the race is 12 hours and that’s a long way. We were lucky, because it was a bad accident [at Daytona], but that’s racing. Now we are restarting from this point, and I just hope we are luckier here.”

Night Practice Times

Prototype
(1) #02-P Scott Dixon (Riley DP Ford EcoBoost) 1:53.090
(2) #5-P Sebastien Bourdais (Corvette DP) 1:53.654 (0.564-)
(3) #60-P Justin Wilson (Riley DP Ford EcoBoost) 1:53.671 (0.581-)

GTLM
(21) #4-GTLM Oliver Gavin (Chevrolet Corvette C7.R) 2:00.157
(22) #56-GTLM John Edwards (BMW Z4 GTE) 2:00.695  (0.538-)
(23) #55-GTLM Joey Hand (BMW Z4 GTE) 2:00.544 (0.556-)

PC
(14) #09-PC Bruno Junqueira (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:57.001
(15) #54-PC Colin Braun (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:57.096 (0.095-)
(16) #25-PC Sean Rayhall (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:57.448 (0.447-)

GTD
(34) #22-GTD Leh Keen (Porsche 911 GT America) 2:04.570
(36) #44-GTD Andy Lally (Porsche 911 GT America) 2:04.901 (0.331-)
(38) #33-GTD Jeroen Bleekemolen (SRT Viper GT3-R) 2:05.293 (0.723-)