“Obviously, anytime I get to come race the KONI Challenge Series is a joy, ” James said. “I ve raced with Tom for the last three years. With my Daytona Prototype commitment, I couldn t do a whole year now, but I m going to try and do as many races as I can. It s great to be back. These cars are so much fun, and it s so close out there. I can t wait for this weekend. They won the first race, so the bar is pretty high here. We ll be trying as hard as we can to make it two-in-a-row. The car is good. It s the first race that we re actually going to be on the KONI shock absorbers to try and use the series sponsor s product, so we re having to dial the car in a little bit. Obviously, the car is fast. There s a few little bits we ve got to do overnight, but it s pretty encouraging. I think we can run with anybody this weekend. ”
Second-quickest on the day was Doug Goad in the No. 9 Spirit of Daytona Racing Pontiac GTO with a lap at 1:29.074 (92.956 mph). Goad s co-driver is Craig Conway. Kris Wilson posted the third-quickest time of the day at 1:29.117 (92.912 mph) in the No. 25 Denon/C-MAX Porsche 997 he is sharing with Dave Riddle.
Fourth was Valerie Limoges at 1:29.260 (92.863 mph) in the No. 4 USG Sheetrock/Ramset Tools Ford Mustang GT she will share in the race with Nastasi, and Don Salama rounded out the top five in the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 at 1:29.321 (92.699 mph). Salama is co-driving with Will Turner, with whom he shared the 2006 Street Tuner (ST) class championship.
In fact, the car that Turner and Salama co-drove to the ST title posted the quickest testing time in class on Friday, as Trevor Hopwood posted a best lap of 1:34.107 (87.985 mph) in the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW 330i. Hopwood s co-driver is Adam Burrows.
“It was good to get back into the car after Daytona, ” Hopwood said. “We had a good finish there, and it s good to be on top of the time sheets today. It was good. I had a good draft on that lap, so you really can t read too much into it. It handled really well, and we made some changes. We re working on getting better. ”
Shane Lewis was second-quickest in ST with a lap at 1:34.416 (87.697 mph) in the No. 22 Honda/Red Line Oil Honda Accord for the HART team. Lewis, a resident of nearby Jupiter, Fla., is co-driving this weekend with John Schmitt.
Third-quickest in ST was Travis Walker at 1:34.482 (87.636 mph) in the No. 75 Kensai Racing Acura TSX he is sharing with Beau Buisson, and Ken Dobson held down the fourth spot at 1:34.496 (87.623 mph) in the No. 144 Davis Motorsports Acura RSX-S he will co-drive in the race with Bob Endicott. Bob Beede completed the ST top five with a lap at 1:34.563 (87.561 mph) in the No. 29 Bill Fenton Motorsports Acura RSX-S. Beede s co-driver is Bill Fenton.
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