Rum Bum Porsche Leads Opening Practice At Road Atlanta

Subtitle:Szymczak Quickest In ST In Mazda MX-5

Matt Plumb and Christian Szymczak led their respective classes in Wednesday’s opening Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge practice at Road Atlanta.

Plumb led the Grand Sport (GS) class with a lap of 1:32.365 (98.999 mph) in the No. 13 Billfish Foundation/Rum Bum Studios Porsche 911 co-driven by his brother Hugh. They enter Friday’s season finale trailing Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis by 28 points. Liddell was eighth-fastest in the session, running 1:33.043 (98.277 mph) in the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R.

Austin Cindric was second in GS, running 1:32.405 (98.956 mph) in the No. 158 Ford Shelby GT350R-C, followed by Multimatic Motorsport teammate and defending race winner Billy Johnson in the No. 15 Shelby, 1:32.526 (98.826 mph).

Szymczak was fastest in ST, running 1:36.511 (94.746 mph) in the No. 34 Alara Racing Mazda MX-5, unofficially breaking Kyle Gimple’s year-old track record. Co-driver Justin Piscitell will be attempting to capture his sixth TOTAL Pole Award of the season in Thursday’s qualifying.

Spencer Pumpelly was second with a lap of 1:36.787 (94.475 mph) in the No. 17 RS1 Porsche Cayman. Pumpelly and Luis Rodriguez Jr. have four victories this season, including the last two.

The ST points battle is going down to the wire. CJ Wilson Racing teammate Chad McCumbee and Stevan McAleer hold a one-point lead over Freedom Autosport’s Andrew Carbonell. McAleer was seventh-fastest in the session, running 1:37.616 (93.673 mph) in the No. 5 ModSpace Mazda MX-5, while Carbonell was sixth, 1:37.563 (93.724 mph) in the No. 26 SemperFiFund.org Mazda MX-5 co-driven by Liam Dwyer.

Thursday’s schedule includes final practice at 10:05 a.m., with qualifying set for 4:45 p.m. Friday’s race takes the green flag at 12:15 p.m., and will be streamed live on imsa.com and the IMSA mobile app.