The Beyer Racing team had a productive start to the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park after participating in two practice sessions and finishing the day with both of its Daytona Prototypes inside the top ten on the Rolex Sports Car Series timesheets.
The #5 Lennox Chevrolet Crawford driven by Jordan Taylor and Jared Beyer ended up eight quickest in the second practice session of the day with a lap of 1m22.725s. The pair of rookies drove their Crawford chassis for only the second time this year and both drivers and engineers are still figuring out the new car, however today they showed that there is definite speed and potential and that they will be a forced to be reckoned with as they keep adapting to the chassis.
For Ricky Taylor and Mike Forest getting up to speed in their #13 Lennox Chevrolet Riley was more difficult as they battled to find grip and a good balance on this impressive 2.3-mile, 16-turn facility. However the duo worked throughout the day with their engineer and managed to improve the car, turning a lap of 1m23.911s in the second session which placed them tenth on the timesheets.
The Beyer Racing squad will return tomorrow for their last practice session in the morning, and will then qualifying in the afternoon for the Porsche 250 presented by Legacy Credit Union, round 8 of the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.
Qualifying for the Porsche 250 presented by Legacy Credit Union begins at 1 p.m. Saturday. The green flag for the two-hour, 45-minute race is set to wave at 2 p.m. CT at the 16-turn Birmingham, Ala., circuit (SPEED, live, 3 p.m. ET). The weekend also includes a pair of Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge races, a Street Tuner race at 2:50 p.m. Saturday and a Grand Sport round 8:20 a.m. Sunday.