The No. 08 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP led Thursday night practice at Petit Le Mans. Photo credit: Rick Dole for Michelin North America

After a day without much track time thanks to interspersed periods of rain, the American Le Mans Series finally got two hours worth of running at Thursday night’s practice session. That said, the session was not without its incidents, as four red flags interrupted the session.

Peugeot led overall and in P1, Stephane Sarrazin in the No. 08 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP at 1:08.777 ahead of the two Audi R15 Plus TDIs. Highcroft Racing led in P2 with David Brabham fastest in the HPD ARX 01-c ahead of the Muscle Milk CytoSport Porsche RS Spyder and Dyson Lola Mazda Coupe, respectively.

A couple of the leading prototype teams had accidents during the session. Twenty minutes into the session, Burt Frisselle in the No. 95 Level 5 LMPC car spun at turn 5, and Paul Drayson in the Drayson Racing Lola Judd Coupe spun trying to avoid him and hit the car’s back left corner. Neither car returned to the track.

Toward the end of the session, the second Peugeot spun off at turn 4, the No. 07 with Anthony Davidson behind the wheel. The Englishman, making his first start at Road Atlanta in a prototype after racing in a Ferrari 550 Maranello in the GT1 class in 2003, slid into the tires and backed out which left a large piece of bodywork behind.

GT2 saw a surprise at the top of the timesheets – Extreme Speed Ferrari with Guy Cosmo in the No. 02 F430 GT setting the bar at 1:20.202. The No. 3 Corvette and No. 62 Risi Ferrari were next up (1:20.376, 1:20.400) ahead of the second Extreme Speed Ferrari. The GT2 field is as tight as ever with the first of the Flying Lizard Porsches, the championship-leading No. 45 911 GT3 RSR, ninth fastest and a little over one second in arrears.

The Porsche Hybrid ran well, the No. 911 car setting its quickest time with Mike Rockenfeller behind the wheel at 1:20.566. That time fell in line between the fourth and fifth place cars in GT2.