Above: Theo Bean sought Geoff Brabham’s advice about driving the latter’s 1988 IMSA championship-winning Nissan GTP. Both drivers set fast time for their run groups in Thursday practice.

Weather hampered afternoon practice Thursday. A prolonged downpour combined with gusty winds that threatened to lift some of the paddock motorcoach awnings from their moorings brought activities to an early close. Still, most of the run groups got at least one practice session in.

Several notable drivers paced their run groups. Geoff Brabham led the way not only in the Formula B class but also in Group 2 overall. He was clocked at two minutes, 21.024 seconds (2:21.024) in owner Ron Hornig’s canary-yellow 1971 Brabham BT35. Hornig, in another identical Brabham, recorded the second-best Group 2 time at 2:27.718. Theo Bean had the ex-Geoff Brabham IMSA 1988 Nissan GTP first in Group 11 but also at the head of a 27-car field that combined Groups 10, 11 and 12b. Bean’s best lap was 2:10.131. Boris Said (pictured) was fastest of the Group 10 competitors in his 1999 Corvette with a lap at 2:12.553.

Unfortunately for Susan Patterson, she cracked a piston and tagged a valve in her Devin. The damage is repairable, but not this weekend. She immediately purchased a 1964 Triumph Spitfire from Beanitos snack food King Dave Foreman.

“I’m here to race one way or another,” Paterson said.

Qualifying starts today, with timed runs in the morning and qualifying races for all classes in the afternoon. SVRA officials will use those results to set the starting fields for Saturday feature races. Trans Am will also have qualifying sessions in morning and afternoon. The Trans Am race is Saturday afternoon’s feature event.