IMSA: Hand, Riley-Ford top charts at COTA practice 2

One year since Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates won its last TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race at Austin's Circuit of The Americas, Joey Hand returned the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley to the top of the charts.

Hand ran an unofficial track-record lap of 1:57.639 (104.047mph) to lead Thursday's second practice session, with the time standing up as the best of the day in the lead Prototype (P) class. It also bettered Alex Brundle's year old mark of 1:57.809 (103.897mph).

"For sure, this whole program – especially me –would like to get a win," Hand said. "We've been so close this year. I feel like it's coming. I like driving this track, Scott likes it and it feels like the balance of the car is close enough right now, we'd do well."

Pruett co-drove to victory last year with Memo Rojas.

"I have great memories here," said Pruett. "This is a spectacular track. COTA is known to be one of the best tracks in the U.S. – one of the best in the world, with the runoff and how it's laid out. Hopefully we can pull off a repeat of last year."

Ozz Negri was second with a lap of 1:58.388 (103.389mph) in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian AERO Ligier JS P2/Honda co-driven by John Pew. Earlier in the day, Negri led opening practice, giving him the fastest lap in 16 of the 32 TUDOR Championship practice sessions this season.

Jordan Taylor was third, 1:59.125 (102.749mph), in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP co-driven by his brother Ricky.

Fourth was current points leader Michael Valiante, running 1:59.412 (102.502mph) in the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP. Valiante and co-driver Richard Westbrook enter the event with a one-point lead over Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP, and a two-point lead over Dane Cameron and Eric Curran in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP. Cameron was fourth-fastest on Thursday, with Fiittipaldi fifth in the combined times.

Three different makes took the top positions in GT Le Mans. Dirk Werner led the day with a lap of 2:04.256 (98.506mph) in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 co-driven by Bill Auberlen. Current points leader Patrick Pilet – seeking his fourth consecutive victory with Nick Tandy in the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR – was second, 2:04.423 (98.374mph). Third was Antonio Garcia, 2:04.613 (98.224mph) in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. Garcia and co-driver Jan Magnussen enter the race trailing Pilet by five points, 248-243.

Prototype Challenge points leader Colin Braun led the class with a lap of 2:00.610 (101.484mph) in the No. 54 CORE autosport Flex-Box/Composite Resources ORECA FLM09. Second, with a lap of 2:00.914 (101.229mph) turned in the opening session, was Renger van der Zande, who joins Mike Hedlund in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Martini ORECA FLM09. Bruno Junqueira was third, 2:01.175 (101.011mph) in the No. 11 RSR Racing AutoMaxUSA entry co-driven by Chris Cumming.

Andy Lally had the best time of the day in GT Daytona, running 2:09.914 (94.216mph) in the afternoon session in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Flex-Box Porsche GT America co-driven by John Potter. Markus Palttala was second, 2:10.134 (94.057mph) in the No. 97 Alvarez & Marsal/IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 co-driven by Michael Marsal, followed by defending Austin winners Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating, 2:10.488 (93.802mph) in the No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R.

The final TUDOR Championship practice will be held Friday at 10:10 a.m. ET, with the 4:45 p.m. qualifying session streamed live on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile app.

s