The battle for supremacy in the GTLM ranks is remarkably close and qualifying looms as the next challenge here at the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Road America.

While Ford and Porsche had been fast throughout this morning’s final practice session, it was Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia who popped up at the end of the session with a time of 2:02.620 to push Ford Performance Racing’s Joey Hand back to second.

Team-mate and last round winner Oliver Gavin was also fast late in the session to go third fastest.

Porsche duo Earl Bamber and Patrick Pilet were fourth and fifth aboard their 911 RSRs.

Mazda continue to show strong pace – will it be enough to clinch their first overall win in the prototype ranks this weekend?

Jonathan Bomarito set the pace this morning with a lap of 1:55.021 – 0.414 of a second faster than Ricky Taylor’s Corvette Daytona Prototype.

Ozz Negri was third fastest in the Michael Shank Racing Ligier ahead of the second Mazda of Joel Miller.

Other class leaders included Renger van der Zande in PC and Bryan Sellers in GT Daytona.

Qualifying is up next this afternoon starting at 2:50pm.

The number we like to see lit up! #Corvette #C7R @TeamChevy @IMSA pic.twitter.com/C4FN900CYM

— Corvette Racing (@CorvetteRacing) August 6, 2016

That’s the checkered flag for this session. The No. 55 Mazda Prototype is quickest overall. No. 70 is 4th overall. pic.twitter.com/0blmF06xK6

— Mazda Racing (@MazdaRacing) August 6, 2016

FP3 done. Fastest were..
P)@JBomarito
PC)@Rengervdz
GTLM)@AntonioGarcia_3
GTD)@BryanSellershttps://t.co/PLvEi5O5CB pic.twitter.com/GldYbYovGJ

— Michelin Alley (@MichelinAlley) August 6, 2016

//results.imsa.com/Results/16_2016/14_Road%20America/01_IMSA%20WeatherTech%20SportsCar%20Championship/201608060925_Practice%203/03_Results.PDF