Watkins Glen IMSA: Acura sets pace again in second practice
The best efforts of Tom Blomqvist and Filipe Albuquerque left the Acuras of Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing just 0.026sec apart at the top of the times in second practice for the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen.

The Andretti Autosport LMP3 entry caused a red flag, while there were other spins but without session stoppage for other LMP3 cars, as well as Frits van Eerd in the Racing Team Nederland LMP2 car and Luis Perez Companc in AF Corse’s GTD-class Ferrari 488.
But the DPi class didn’t take long to gain a familiar look, with yesterday’s pacesetting Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05, driven by Oliver Jarvis on top, again chased by Renger van der Zande in the Chip Ganassi Racing #01 Cadillac DPi-V.R and Ricky Taylor in Wayne Taylor Racing’s Acura. With 50mins down, the big difference compared with yesterday was that the top trio were covered by a mere 0.15sec.
That’s when the second red flag of the session came out. Kyffin Simpson in the Gradient Racing Acura NSX and Katherine Legge’s Team Hardpoint Porsche 911 GT3 R were off at Turn 6.
The retrieval of those cars and the repair of the wall took almost 15mins, and when action resumed, van der Zande turned a 1min31.232sec to move to the top of the times, before handing off to Sebastien Bourdais. Meanwhile, their teammate Earl Bamber made it a Ganassi 1-2, with a lap of the 3.4-mile track just 0.18sec slower.
With 20mins to go, there was another red flag, as the MLT Motorsports car of Josh Sarchet went off at the Bus Stop chicane and needed restarting.
The recommencement of track activities saw Filipe Albuquerque in the WTR Acura set by far the fastest time of the weekend, his 1min30.358sec run putting him on top by 0.874sec.
However, Bamber delivered a very impressive 1min30.096, and then yesterday’s pacesetter Tom Blomqvist twice ducked under the 90sec barrier his best effort producing a 1min29.581sec in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura. Bamber responded but came up 0.239sec short.
Albuquerque came a lot closer, punching in a 1min29.672sec, followed by a 1min29.607 – a mere 0.026sec slower than Blomqvist.
Six tenths behind Bamber was teammate Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 CGR Caddy, while Olivier Pla was fifth in the Action Express Racing Cadillac. Jimmie Johnson was seventh in the sister car, some 2.3sec off top spot and survived a huge spin in the dying minutes.
Giedo van der Garde in the Racing Team Nederland entry emerged with top LMP2 time, almost 0.8sec ahead of Mikkel Jensen of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, and the impressive Sebastian Montoya of DragonSpeed, while Jonathan Bomarito was a further 0.4sec back in the second PR1 car.
Sean Crech Motorsport’s Ligier set the fastest time in LMP3, 0.4sec ahead of Dakota Dickerson’s best in the recently stricken MLT car, with Colin Braun third for CORE autosport, and Matt Bell in the Forty7 Motorsports.
GTD Pro was led by Vasser Sullivan Racing’s #14 car piloted by Ben Barnicoat, ahead of Ross Gunn in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage and Mathieu Jaminet’s Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
In GTD, Stevan McAleer put the Team Korthoff Mercedes AMG GT3 on top, a mere 0.032sec ahead of Turner Motorsports’ BMW M4, with Simpson’s stricken Gradient Acura retaining third ahead of Jaden Conwright in the NTE/SSR Lamborghini Huracan.
Qualifying begins at 1.20pm local (Eastern) time.
Cla | Driver | Class | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | | DPi | Acura DPi | 36 | 1'29.581 | |
2 | | DPi | Acura DPi | 35 | 1'29.607 | 0.026 |
3 | | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 41 | 1'29.820 | 0.239 |
4 | | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 37 | 1'30.418 | 0.837 |
5 | | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 39 | 1'30.529 | 0.948 |
6 | | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 38 | 1'31.302 | 1.721 |
7 | | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 33 | 1'31.878 | 2.297 |
8 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 39 | 1'32.771 | 3.190 |
9 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 39 | 1'33.555 | 3.974 |
10 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 36 | 1'33.580 | 3.999 |
11 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 43 | 1'33.986 | 4.405 |
12 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 39 | 1'34.406 | 4.825 |
13 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 43 | 1'34.507 | 4.926 |
14 | | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 42 | 1'34.786 | 5.205 |
15 | Malthe Jakobsen | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 38 | 1'39.669 | 10.088 |
16 | Josh Sarchet Tyler Maxson | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 23 | 1'40.067 | 10.486 |
17 | | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 29 | 1'40.378 | 10.797 |
18 | | LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 29 | 1'40.598 | 11.017 |
19 | Josh Burdon | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 33 | 1'40.701 | 11.120 |
20 | | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 35 | 1'40.769 | 11.188 |
21 | Daniel Goldburg | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 39 | 1'40.866 | 11.285 |
22 | Nolan Siegel | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 36 | 1'41.172 | 11.591 |
23 | Ugo De Danny Formal | LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 33 | 1'41.508 | 11.927 |
24 | | LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 39 | 1'41.744 | 12.163 |
25 | Nico Varrone | LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 35 | 1'43.402 | 13.821 |
26 | | GTD PRO | Lexus RC F GT3 | 29 | 1'45.338 | 15.757 |
27 | | GTD | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 32 | 1'45.388 | 15.807 |
28 | Michael Dinan | GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 35 | 1'45.420 | 15.839 |
29 | | GTD PRO | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 34 | 1'45.476 | 15.895 |
30 | | GTD PRO | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 34 | 1'45.496 | 15.915 |
31 | | GTD PRO | BMW M4 GT3 | 29 | 1'45.516 | 15.935 |
32 | | GTD PRO | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 36 | 1'45.707 | 16.126 |
33 | | GTD PRO | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 37 | 1'45.715 | 16.134 |
34 | Kyffin Simpson | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 23 | 1'45.742 | 16.161 |
35 | Marco Holzer | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 34 | 1'45.844 | 16.263 |
36 | | GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 35 | 1'45.854 | 16.273 |
37 | | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 34 | 1'45.999 | 16.418 |
38 | | GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 38 | 1'46.061 | 16.480 |
39 | | GTD PRO | Corvette C8.R GTD | 33 | 1'46.092 | 16.511 |
40 | | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 26 | 1'46.251 | 16.670 |
41 | | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 37 | 1'46.285 | 16.704 |
42 | | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 34 | 1'46.290 | 16.709 |
43 | | GTD | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 35 | 1'46.291 | 16.710 |
44 | Jon Miller | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 30 | 1'46.314 | 16.733 |
45 | | GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 34 | 1'46.343 | 16.762 |
46 | | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 35 | 1'46.360 | 16.779 |
47 | | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 23 | 1'46.585 | 17.004 |
48 | | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 38 | 1'46.693 | 17.112 |
View full results |

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