After winning at Sebring and Long Beach, Scott Pruett continued to show that race winning speed in the opening practice session today for the Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Pruett stopped the clocks at 1 minute, 20.243 seconds to top the times in his Chip Ganassi Racing entry – just ahead of Daytona winner Joao Barbosa in the Action Express Racing car.

DeltaWing Racing celebrated their return to TUDOR United SportsCar Championship competition with Andy Meyrick finished third fastest.

The GTLM class again looks set to be a close hard fought battle with three manufacturers filling the first three spots this morning. Dirk Mueller’s BMW topped the times ahead of Tommy Milner’s Corvette and Wolf Henzler’s Porsche.

This morning’s session included a long red flag period after the PC entry of Doug Bielefeld (#88-PC Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) had a huge off at turn five and finished in the wall. Despite ending up underneath the tire wall with his helmet pressed against a bundle of rubber, Bielefeld was about to walk to the ambulance for a check-up after IMSA safety crews cleared the tires off his car.

Other fast men today included Colin Bruan in PC and Leh Keen in GTD.

Top three in class (overall in parentheses):

PROTOTYPES
(1) #01-P Scott Pruett (Riley DP Ford EcoBoost) 1:20.243
(2) #5-P Joao Barbosa (Corvette DP) 1:20.590 (0.347-)
(3) #0-P Andy Meyrick (DeltaWing DWC13 Elan) 1:20.603 (0.360-)

PC
(6) #54-PC Colin Braun (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:20.915
(10) #8-PC Renger van der Zande (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:21.402 (0.487-)
(12) #25-PC Sean Rayhall (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:21.821 (0.906-)

GTLM
(21) #56-GTLM Dirk Mueller (BMW Z4 GTE) 1:24.066
(23) #4-GTLM Tommy Milner (Chevrolet Corvette C7.R) 1:24.387 (0.321-)
(24) #17-GTLM Wolf Henzler (Porsche 911 RSR) 1:24.401 (0.335-)

GTD
(34) #22-GTD Leh Keen (Porsche 911 GT America) 1:27.641
(35) #33-GTD Jeroen Bleekemolen (SRT Viper GT3-R) 1:28.167 (0.526-)
(36) #64-GTD Kyle Marcelli (Ferrari F458 Italia) 1:28.205 (0.564-)