Watkins Glen 240 IMSA: Pla leads wet practice

Just six days after the MSR Acura ARX-05 qualified on pole for the Six Hours of The Glen, Pla again ensured the car was fastest around the 3.4-mile roadcourse, but this time with a lap some 18sec slower due to heavy rain.

In the dying minutes, Pla turned a 1min48.813sec, 0.14sec faster than Renger van der Zande’s best effort in the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R which had earlier sustained rear end damage when Kevin Magnussen spun, bringing out one of three red flags.

The other two were caused by last week’s winner Mazda RT24-P grinding to a halt on its out lap, and Jarett Andretti having an off in Andretti Autosport’s LMP3 entry.

Ricky Taylor was the last of the DPi drivers to pass the checkered flag, the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura clocking third fastest albeit half a second off the MSR team’s equivalent.

Felipe Nasr was fourth in the Action Express Racing Caddy ahead of Harry Tincknell in the Mazda and Loic Duval in the JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac.

Tower Motorsports’ Gabriel Aubry was fastest in LMP2 by a full second, ahead of Mikkel Jensen in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry.

Andretti’s grassy moment notwithstanding, Oliver Askew was fastest of the LMP3 runners, 0.4sec ahead of Riley Motorsports’ #91 car piloted by Dylan Murry and 0.75 ahead of Felipe Fraga in the second Riley machine.

Nick Tandy led the three-car GT Le Mans field for Corvette Racing.

A Six Hours of The Glen winner who shone in these wet conditions was Robby Foley who led the GT Daytona runners in Turner Motorsports’ BMW M6, half a second ahead of Aaron Telitz in the #14 Lexus RC F of Vasser Sullivan Racing.

Mario Farnbacher’s Acura NSX was next up, ahead of Jeff Westphal in the Audi R8 of Carbahn Peregrine Racing.

That was the sole practice session for this race, as qualifying will commence at 5.40pm local (Eastern) time today.

Cla	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Dane Cameron Olivier Pla	DPi	Acura DPi	12	1'48.813
2	Renger van der Zande Kevin Magnussen	DPi	Cadillac DPi	14	1'48.953	0.140
3	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Acura DPi	18	1'49.305	0.492
4	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	9	1'49.811	0.998
5	Oliver Jarvis Harry Tincknell	DPi	Mazda DPi	20	1'49.991	1.178
6	Tristan Vautier Loic Duval	DPi	Cadillac DPi	16	1'52.793	3.980
7	John Farano Gabriel Aubry	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	8	1'56.588	7.775
8	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	18	1'57.666	8.853
9	Thomas Steven Tristan Nunez	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	14	1'57.758	8.945
10	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	14	1'58.913	10.100
11	Jarett Andretti Oliver Askew	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	12	1'59.440	10.627
12	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	14	1'59.647	10.834
13	Jim Cox Dylan Murry	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	15	1'59.843	11.030
14	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	20	2'00.188	11.375
15	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	17	2'00.274	11.461
16	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	14	2'02.785	13.972
17	Theodor Olsen Dominic Cicero	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	13	2'03.033	14.220
18	Aaron Telitz Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	12	2'03.348	14.535
19	Jeff Kingsley Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	17	2'03.475	14.662
20	Richard Heistand Jeff Westphal	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	17	2'04.211	15.398
21	Cooper MacNeil Matt Campbell	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	17	2'04.690	15.877
22	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	18	2'04.719	15.906
23	Frankie Montecalvo Zach Veach	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	13	2'04.863	16.050
24	Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	15	2'05.906	17.093
25	Rasmus Lindh Mateo Llarena	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	6	2'07.592	18.779
26	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	16	2'07.797	18.984
27	Roman De Angelis Ross Gunn	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	3	2'09.080	20.267
28	Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	16	2'12.566	23.753
29	Mikhail Goikhberg Franck Perera	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	15	2'13.218	24.405
30	Guy Cosmo Shane Lewis	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2	0.000
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