Thomas Merrill paces the opening practice session at Mid Ohio

Circle H Racing’s Aston Martin leads the charge in the opening session for Michelin Pilot action at Mid Ohio. Thomas Merrill ended the 60 minute session a top of the board setting the benchmark lap time of a 1:25.846. Merrill was 0.089 seconds quicker than the number 44 Ibiza Farm Motorsports McLaren of Michael Cooper, with the number 37 Carbahn BMW of Cameron Shields rounding out the top 3. Merrill will be sharing the car with David Hampton and Martin Sarukhanyan this weekend. Jeff Westphal and Robby Foley round out the top 5 for the GS class. In TCR the number 21 Victor Gonzalez Racing Cupra of Steven Clemons went top of the board. The hour long session saw only a single red flag for the number 19 Stephen Cameron Racing Mustang of Sean Quinlan who stopped on track at turn 4. With that causing a red flag the car’s fastest lap in qualifying will be disallowed. Tomorrow teams have there second practice session at 10:45 followed by qualifying at 4:10.