IMSA: Negri, Ford lead opening practice at Detroit

Michael Shank Racing's Oswaldo Negri Jr. (ABOVE) set the fastest lap during Friday morning's opening practice session for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship as the Brazilian pushed his No. 6 Ford EcoBoost DP to a lap of 1:26.475 around the 14-turn street course located in the shadow of GM's global headquarters.

Action Express Racing's Christian Fittipaldi moved the points-leading No. 5 Corvette DP into second at the end of the 90-minute session with a 1:26.556.

Shank's Ford stablemate Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates made it an EcoBoost DP 1-3 as Memo Rojas followed close behind with a 1:26.608. Top P2 went to Extreme Speed Motorsport's Ryan Dalziel in fifth at 1:27.056, 0.581sec behind Negri.

The two-class event, featuring Prototypes and GT Daytonas, saw The Racer Group's James Davison (BELOW), fresh off an impressive debut at the Indy 500, pop to the top of the GTD order with a 1:33.720 in his No. 33 Aston martin V12 Vantage. Flying Lizard Motorsports' Spencer Pumpelly was second in his No. 45 Audi R8 at 1:33.764 and Patrick Dempsey Racing's Andrew Davis completed the top-3 with his No. 27 Porsche GT America 1:34.345.​