The No. 38 ORECA FLM09 of Performance Tech Motorsports will not compete any further at this weekend's Petit Le Mans after the car suffered irreparible damage early in Thursday's opening practice session of the finale weekend.
The weekend-ending crash took place at Turn 1 with Conor Daly at the wheel of the Prototype Challenge-contending car. Despite the heavy contact with the Turn 1 wall, Daly avoided serious injury, although he's "gutted," per a Tweet after the crash, that the car's finale weekend is over and the championship cannot be attemped.
Two other incidents took place in the hour-long Practice 1 - both also of Prototype Challenge entries. Anthony Lazzaro, filling the third seat for the weekend at CORE autosport as well as Mirco Schultis of Starworks Motorsport brought out red flags of their own but did not suffer the caliber of damage that Daly did in the No. 38 Performance Tech entry.
"Bottomed out over Turn 1 exit curb and got sucked out into wet grass then wall."
- Conor Daly via Twitter
Ozz Negri put the No. 60 Honda-powered Ligier JS P2 of Michael Shank Racing on top of the timesheet for Practice 1 with a best lap of 1:15.163. Just under half-a-second back was the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford DP which is coming off a win last time out at COTA. Third-quickest in the opening session of the weekend was the DeltaWing, driven by Katherine Legge, whose best lap was under six-tenths behind the top time of Negri.
Colin Braun put CORE autosport's ORECA FLM09 on top in Prototype Challenge with a best lap of 1:15.976.
Leading GTLM and GTD for were Dirk Werner of the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE and Spencer Pumpelly at the wheel of the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America.
Practice 2 for the TUDOR Championship will begin at 3:25 pm ET on Thursday.
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Aaron Durant is the editor of the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @DoubleA291.