,
And the conditions went from bad to worse, as the afternoon practice was cut short…
And fans ducked under any available cover, including the Chevy and SRT booths. The Chevrolet tent was ultimately closed off for the day because of all the water building up on the tent.
Needless to say, these were the tire of choice for the early part of the weekend.
The teams brought several firsts as well. One Toyota TS030 Hybrid was competing, and Porsche had a pair of their new GTE 991s challenging for top honors after a strong Le Mans win. Since both generations of Porsche GTEs were running (997 and 991), you could watch them passing through the same turns and look for the differences. The 997 seemed to lift an inside wheel much more than the 991, and the improvements in the 991 should give Porsche customers a strong shot at class wins. Both the IMSA and Proton teams ran the 997, and only the IMSA team was in contention for a podium. It ultimately finished 3rd behind 2 Aston Martins.
The TS030 did nto disappoint. It looked and sounded great, and the single entry took the fight to the Audis, finishing second after 6 hours.
