It was the pair of Ford GTs on top of the timesheets as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship rolls into Lime Rock Park in Connecticut for the Northeast Grand Prix.

The GT only race weekend means that the fastest GTLM cars, in this case, Ford’s Dirk Mueller in the No. 66 Ford GT, will be challenging for the overall win, rather than just class victories.

Second fastest in the session went to Mueller’s teammate Ryan Briscoe in the sister No. 67 car, just 0.191 of a second off of Mueller’s 00:51.383 time.

Ford was fast at Lime Rock last year, with the No. 67 taking pole position. Though they ultimately lost the race, giving Corvette their 100th victory in a 1-2 finish, the Ford outfit still managed to snag a podium position.

Third and fifth places in the session both went to the Porsche team, with the No. 912 pacing the pair of 911 RSRs. Laurens Vanthoor’s 0:51.330 lap was less than two-tenths of a second faster than the 0:51.512 turned by the No. 911’s Dirk Werner.

Splitting the pair of Porsches was the championship leading No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen lead the GTLM championship by a scant three points in the incredibly close class. The duo finished second last year and are looking for a podium finish, or even a win, to maximize their points position.

Not cracking the top five in practice was the winner of the previous two races, the No. 25 BMW M6 GTLM of Alexander Sims and Bill Auberlen, coming sixth. The No. 25 outfit just bested the team No. 24 in seventh. Just 0.698 separated the fastest time, set by Mueller, and John Edwards’ seventh fastest time of 0:51.775.

Last year’s race winner, the No. 4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin was eighth in the session.

Porsche’s Joerg Bergmeister set the fastest time in GTD in the No. 73 ahead of Acura’s Andy Lally in the No. 93 Acura NSX GT3.

#NorthEastGP Practice 1 Results ??

P1 #66FordGT
P2 #67FordGT#FordIMSA #TeamGanassi #IMSA #ihgracing pic.twitter.com/luz1X7SOTp

— CGR SportsCar (@CGRsportscar) July 21, 2017

No. 912 guys checking out the tire wear after FP1 #NorthEastGP #Porsche #911RSR pic.twitter.com/ByIdrPHl7N

— Porsche GT Team IMSA (@PorscheNAracing) July 21, 2017

//imsa.alkamelsystems.com/Results/17_2017/16_Lime%20Rock%20Park/01_IMSA%20WeatherTech%20SportsCar%20Championship/201707211205_Practice%201/05_Results%20by%20Class.PDF