Audi Sport Team Land dominates opening hours of Cal8H

The opening two hours of the inaugural Mazda Raceway California 8 Hours were dominated by the No. 29 Audi Sport Team Land R8. Christopher Mies was at the wheel at the start of the race, and because of an early safety car-intervention, it took him some laps to create a comfortable gap. After two hours of racing the car enjoyed an 11-second advantage.

"I had two tight moments in the opening hour, at the start and at the restart, with [Patrick] Long and [Alvaro] Parente coming alongside. But after that I could pull away from them, creating a comfortable gap. We worked hard on the setup of the car, and that clearly pays off."

Behind the green-and-white Audi the No. 44 Audi Sport Team Magnus R8 is in second, with the No. 43 RealTime Racing Acura completing the top-3 after two hours. The other Acura, the No. 93 machine of Kox, Gounon and Wilkins, retired because of an issue with the cooling system.

The No. 77 Calvert Dynamics / GMG Racing Porsche created a surprise by doing a short fuel only pitstop after the first hour, briefly taking the overall lead. The car dropped to 9th after two hours, second in the Pro-Am class behind the No. 54 Black Swan Racing Porsche.

In the GT4 category, the No. 3 TRG Aston Martin tops the charts, with a 1m14s advantage over the No. 12 Ian Lacy Racing Ginetta.