Plumb ran a lap of 2:23.581 (85.248 mph) in the No. 13 Billfish Foundation/Rum Bum Studios Porsche 911 co-driven by his brother Hugh. That lap was 1.790 seconds fastest than the second-fastest car. Coming off back-to-back victories, the Plumbs have pulled within 10 points of Stevenson Motorsports drivers Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell, 251-241, with only two races remaining.

 

“We stickered up – put on a fresh set of Continental Tires – and most of the other teams were on older tires, and that’s why we were so fast,” Matt Plumb said. “We like our situation right now. We like it when the pressure is on. When you have a lead in the points, you tend to try to be smart and consistent, but everything about racing a car is pushing. When you’re trying to catch up, you have more motivation. You’re forced to go flat out, and everyone on the team is working to eke every bit of performance out of the car – and it shows.”

 

Billy Johnson was second in the No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Shelby GT350R-C co-driven by Scott Maxwell. The car – rebuilt from a recent incident at VIRginia International Raceway – ran a lap of 2:25.371 (84.198 mph).

 

Liddell was third, running 2:25.627 (84.050 mph) in the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R. The team won three consecutive races early in the season and has finished in the top five in all eight events.

 

Defending Circuit of The Americas winner Trent Hindman was fourth, 2:25.748 (83.981 mph), in the No. 46 Fall-Line Motorsports IHG Rewards Club/Trim-Tex BMW M3 co-driven by Ashley Freiberg. 

 

“We’re in the hunt,” Hindman said. “The Rum Bum Porsche ran on sticker tires – but everyone behind them was pretty close.”

 

Adam Isman led Street Tuner (ST) in the No. 18 RS1 Porsche Cayman co-driven by Cavan O’Keefe with a best time of 2:31.434 (80.827 mph). Greg Liefooghe was second in the No. 83 Next Level European/Red Line Oil Porsche Cayman co-driven by Eric Zimmermann, 2:31.581 (80.749 mph), followed by Chad McCumbee, 2:31.590 (80.744 mph) in the No. 5 CJ Wilson Racing ModSpace Mazda MX-5 co-driven by Stevan McAleer.

 

Andrew Carbonell enters the race with a three-point lead over McCumbee and McAleer, but wound up 26th and last on the charts for the 45-minute session in the No. 5 Freedom Autosport SemperFiFund.org Mazda MX-5 co-driven by Liam Dwyer.

 

“We were chasing mechanical gremlins for the entire session, and we didn’t even get in a timed lap,” Carbonell said. “The crew is working very hard to correct the problem.”

 

The second Continental Tire Challenge practice will be Thursday at 10:20 a.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 2:35 p.m.  The two-hour, 30-minute race begins at 1:40 p.m. ET on Friday, and will be streamed live on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile app.