Grant Delivers Fastest Lap at Friday’s Practice
Braselton, GA – Keith Grant, driving the No. 40 Swift 016/Mazda from Polestar, took fastest lap during Atlantic Championship Series practice on Friday with a time of 1:18.108; behind him was K-Hill driver Conner Kearby, and then third for the day was Comprent’s Richard Zober. The Atlantic Series opens its 14-race season this weekend for 2015 at Road Atlanta.
Grant made podium several times throughout both the 2012 and 2014 seasons, and was back in full form for Fridays practice as he readied the car for the weekend.
“We’ve been playing a little bit with the setup but haven’t really done anything significant, track conditions were about the same as they were yesterday in testing and the car has been consist all weekend, its been handling well since we got here,” said Grant.
Kearby ended up half a second behind Grant, and was followed by Comprent teammates Zober in third, in a Swift 016/Mazda, and then Bob Corliss in fourth driving a Swift 014/Toyota.
No driver in this weekend’s field has won an Atlantic Championship Series race.
Although rain kept numbers on the track low during practice session one; the Atlantic Championship Series still saw some action as teams and drivers worked towards getting their setups dialed in for the weekend at Road Atlanta.
Palm Beach runner up, and driver of the No. 6 K-Hill car, Bruce Hamilton was the fastest in the rain soaked practice session one with a lap time of 1:45:36. Hamilton said that Friday was going “better than yesterday,” and after some “teething issues,” got sorted out, they are now ready for the dry weekend. “We were trying to prove the reliability of the car,” said Hamilton.
Completing the top ten were Lewis Cooper, Bruce Crockett, Chris Ash, JR Smart and Mike Jacques.
The top three for the Atlantic Challenge were Corliss, Hamilton, and Cooper.
Comprent Racing was ready for dry weather after a full day of testing on Thursday and not getting on the track during the wet conditions that took over practice session one. Comprent Racing also has new to the series Chris Ash, who is behind the wheel of a brand new Swift 016 built by Atlantic Creations.
Dry weather for practice session two allowed for the top times of the day to be put in as well as a handful of more drivers to get some practice time in ahead of qualifying and races.
The rest of the weekend at Road Atlanta consists of both qualifying and races on Saturday and Sunday as the start of the 2015 Atlantic Championship Series unfolds.
Results are available on www.atlanticchampionshipseries.com under the results tab.