Corvette Racing is no stranger to being at the top of the time sheet on the streets of Long Beach but Mazda’s performance in the opening session today in California was a first.

With its head office located nearby in Irvine, California, Mazda today completed an IMSA session in P1 for the first time with Jonathan Bomarito behind the wheel. The Californian stopped the clocks at 1:15.917 – just outpacing the Corvette DPs of Jordan Taylor and IndyCar racer Ryan Hunter-Reay who is pulling double duty this weekend for Visit Florida Racing.

Mazda’s speed wasn’t a fluke. The second car was fourth fastest with Joel Miller at the wheel.

In GTLM Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin was fastest at 1:18.533 ahead of BMW ace Lucas Luhr. The Corvette pace was mirrored by the No.3 ‘Vette with Jan Magnussen finishing the session third fastest.

The two-hour Long Beach “street sweeper” session came to an end early with the Ford GT of Richard Westbrook stopping on track with a fire.

The British driver quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher from a marshal to switch from race driver mode into firefighter!

In the PC class, CORE autosport’s Colin Braun was fastest ahead of Renger van der Zande and Tom Kimber-Smith.

The teams now face a long wait – fortunately for the Ford Racing guys – before returning on track at 5:00pm for the final practice. Qualifying begins at 5:35pm

Congrats to @MazdaRacing. P1 in the 1st session today. Just down the road from USA HQ in Irvine, CA. #BUBBAGP pic.twitter.com/r8b2Snhqd1

— Michelin Alley (@MichelinAlley) April 15, 2016

Checkered flag. Mazda Prototypes are P1 and P4. #NeverStopChallenging pic.twitter.com/eRZ8mYcPCe

— Mazda Racing (@MazdaRacing) April 15, 2016

Red flag will likely mean end of the session. Olly stayed P1 and @janmagnussen was P3. #Corvette #C7R #BubbaGP

— Corvette Racing (@CorvetteRacing) April 15, 2016

#IMSA @RWestbrook1 eval & released from medical center after #67FordGT suffered fire in Pract 1 #LBGP #BUBBAGP pic.twitter.com/jpAnJUdAwr

— Ford Performance (@FordPerformance) April 15, 2016