GRAND AM (LIME ROCK) - Farnbacher Leads Opening Practice

With a best lap at 54.262 seconds (101.508 mph) in the No. 85 Shoes for Crews/Recaro Porsche GT3, Dominik Farnbacher topped the time charts in Friday’s practice sessions for the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve Grand-Am GT Classic at Lime Rock Park on Monday (SPEED, 3 p.m. ET).

Farnbacher’s lap, which he achieved during the heat of the day in a sticky day at Lime Rock Park, was more than a second quicker than Wolf Henzler’s Rolex Series GT track record of 55.535 seconds (99.181 mph) set last year. Farnbacher and his No. 85 co-driver Leh Keen are looking for their first Rolex Series victory and are part of the two-car Farnbacher Loles Motorsports team, which also fields the No. 87 Marquis Jet/IPC/Recaro Porsche GT3 for co-drivers Bryce Miller and Dirk Werner. Miller and Werner earned their first Rolex Series GT victory in the VIR 400 last month and also picked up a podium result with a third-place run last weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Farnbacher and Keen are looking for similar results this weekend.

“Lime Rock Park is a very nice track,” Farnbacher said. “I’m pretty comfortable and the car is good. It’s good we tried out different setup things and I think we’ve found a good setup for the qualifying tomorrow. It’s a lot of fun to be here. I think the main this is we work together as a team. The team communicates together, especially the crew chiefs of both cars. They put their information to the other car and the other car puts the information to our car, so we can work together as a team. It brings us pretty much to the front. Farnbacher Loles is doing this teamwork in an awesome category and does an awesome job.”

Paul Edwards was second quickest on the day in the No. 07 Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R with a lap at 54.286 seconds (101.463 mph). Edwards and co-driver Kelly Collins have three top-four class results in five starts this season but are still looking for their first GT victory of the 2007 Rolex Series campaign. The duo finished second at Lime Rock Park last year.

“The car is really good,” said Edwards. “We didn’t know what to expect with the new GXP.R. It’s a new motor and longer wheel base since last year. A momentum track like this one really works for our Pontiac. We have really good balance in the car and have run all day on old tires from Laguna. Everything looks positive for a strong result on the weekend. Hopefully we can get this new GXP.R its first win on Monday.”

Making a cameo appearance in the Grand-Am GT Classic this weekend is Daytona Prototype regular Patrick Long, who posted the day’s third-quickest time at 54.444 seconds (101.168 mph) in the No. 81 EMC Mechanical/Gamewell Mechanical Porsche GT3. Long—who is a full-time driver of the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche Crawford in the Daytona Prototype class—is sharing the No. 81 ride this weekend with 2005 Rolex Series GT champion Craig Stanton. Long picked up his first Daytona Prototype win of the season last weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca co-driving with 2006 Daytona Prototype champion Jörg Bergmeister.

Sylvain Tremblay, who currently shares the 2007 Rolex Series GT points lead with his No. 70 Mazdaspeed/Mazda RX-8 co-driver Nick Ham, was fourth quickest in Friday practice at 54.543 seconds (100.985 mph). Tremblay and Ham—who won back-to-back races earlier this year at Mexico City and Homestead-Miami Speedway and finished second in the VIR 400—are looking to return to the GT podium after a seventh-place run at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca last weekend.

Andy Lally filled out the top five in the No. 66 CRG/Maxter/Rotax/MBA/NFP/F1Air Porsche GT3 with a lap at 54.747 seconds (100.608 mph). Lally and co-driver RJ Valentine picked up their first Rolex Series GT victory of the season last weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, leading a sweep of the top-two positions for TRG, which has won each of the last two Rolex Series GT team championships.