Yesterday, Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport threw down a lap of 70.6346 seconds to pace IZOD IndyCar Series practice for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday.
It was an eventful day for the American driver. During the IndyCar practice session, he spun out on course and narrowly missed an oncoming car while he was trying to get out of the racing line. After avoiding potential disaster in his No. 37 IZOD machine, he hopped into an LMP Challenge-class American Le Mans Series machine to prepare for the series’ own race at Long Beach today.
Hunter-Reay and Level 5 Motorsports teammate Scott Tucker qualified 20th for the ALMS event.
“I’ve been used to jumping in and out of race cars pretty quick, so I think I can adjust to things pretty well,” said Hunter-Reay about his busy weekend. “The lines will be the same. The braking and shifting points will be different, though.”
Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe (70.6980) was second-fastest in Friday IndyCar practice, followed by Andretti Autosport’s Tony Kanaan (70.7334) in third. FAZZT Race Team’s Alex Tagliani was fourth-quickest (70.7996) and championship leader Will Power was P5 (70.8641).
A third IndyCar practice session will take place this afternoon from 1:25-2:25 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying for Sunday’s main event at 5:30 p.m. ET. Versus is slated to pick up the action on TV starting at 6 p.m. ET.
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Materials from a league press release were used in this article.
