Watkins Glen IMSA: Pla puts Meyer Shank Acura on top in FP1

Pla lapped the 3.4-mile course in 1min31.056sec, fastest in all three sectors at the wheel of the #60 Acura ARX-05. He was 0.591sec faster than the best effort of Action Express Racing’s extra driver in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, Mike Conway.

The Chip Ganassi Racing team, which won the previous IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race in Detroit, saw Renger van der Zande finish the session – 60mins for the Pros, 90mins for Ams – a further three-tenths down.

IndyCar ace and former Watkins Glen winner Alexander Rossi produced the best time for Wayne Taylor Racing in fourth ahead of Loic Duval in the Cadillac of JDC Miller MotorSports.

Mazda, who scored its first win at this venue two years ago, was a disappointing sixth, and Harry Tincknell had to trickle his car slowly to the pits after his final run with a turbo issue.

The #48 Ally Racing AXR Cadillac DPi-V.R of Simon Pagenaud, Kamui Kobayashi and Jimmie Johnson – back for its third of four outings this season – had an early clash with the #18 LMP2 Era Motorsport Oreca, which sent the slower car off at Turn 1, causing a red flag. But Race Control saw no fault in what Pagenaud had done and didn’t penalize him.

Tristan Nunez set the fastest time in LMP2, the WIN Autosport entry lapping less than a tenth faster than John Farano, who was half a second up on Scott Huffaker in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car.

The Era car was able to rejoin the track after its off, and Tilley was fourth, ahead of Wayne Boyd in the United Autosports machine.

In LMP3 Oliver Askew led for Andretti Autosport ahead of Jon Bennett’s CORE autosport entry, and the Riley Motorsports cars of Felipe Fraga and Dylan Murry.

In GT Le Mans, Nick Tandy’s top effort in the #4 Corvette C8.R – 1min42.517sec – was 0.15sec better than teammate Antonio Garcia’s best effort in the #3 machine.

Jesse Krohn and Philipp Eng were next up in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M8 GTEs ahead of the WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19.

The Porsche’s best time is not fully representative, however, as it missed a lot of track time with a suspension issue, driver Cooper MacNeil reporting to IMSA Radio that the right rear damper had broken.

That was not the only Porsche in trouble as Pfaff Motorsports revealed that the gearbox of its GT Daytona-class 911 GT3 R had seized after just four laps by Laurens Vanthoor. When the car returned to track, it had time to add just nine more laps.

Jack Hawksworth led the GTD field in the Vasser Sullivan #14 Lexus RC F, ahead of Wright Motorsports’ Porsche, steered by Patrick Long.

The NTe Sport Audi R8 LMS which hasn’t run since the Rolex 24 in January, was a very impressive third fastest in the hands of Jaden Conwright, followed by Zach Veach in VSR’s second Lexus, Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan and Richard Heistand in the Carbahn Peregrine Audi.

Tomorrow’s session will start at 8am local (Eastern) time with qualifying starting at 11.50am.

Practice times:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	60	Dane Cameron Olivier Pla	DPi	Acura DPi	1'31.056
2	31	Felipe Nasr Mike Conway Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'31.647	0.591
3	01	Renger van der Zande Kevin Magnussen	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'31.949	0.893
4	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Alexander Rossi	DPi	Acura DPi	1'31.987	0.931
5	5	Tristan Vautier Loic Duval Sébastien Bourdais	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'32.266	1.210
6	55	Oliver Jarvis Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'32.483	1.427
7	48	Jimmie Johnson Kamui Kobayashi Simon Pagenaud	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'32.515	1.459
8	11	Thomas Steven Tristan Nunez Thomas Merrill	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'33.836	2.780
9	8	John Farano Gabriel Aubry James French	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'33.881	2.825
10	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'34.397	3.341
11	18	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'34.492	3.436
12	22	James McGuire Wayne Boyd Guy Smith	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'35.286	4.230
13	36	Jarett Andretti Oliver Askew Marco Andretti	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'40.812	9.756
14	54	Jon Bennett George Kurtz Colin Braun	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'40.895	9.839
15	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Scott Andrews	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'41.517	10.461
16	91	Jim Cox Dylan Murry Jeroen Bleekemolen	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'41.912	10.856
17	4	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	1'42.517	11.461
18	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	1'42.674	11.618
19	24	John Edwards Jesse Krohn Augusto Farfus	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'42.852	11.796
20	25	Connor de Phillippi Philipp Eng Bruno Spengler	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'43.062	12.006
21	38	Rasmus Lindh Mateo Llarena Dan Goldburg	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'43.792	12.736
22	2	Niklas Kruetten Edouard Cauhaupe Austin McCusker	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'44.060	13.004
23	79	Cooper MacNeil Mathieu Jaminet Matt Campbell	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'44.215	13.159
24	14	Aaron Telitz Jack Hawksworth Kyle Kirkwood	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'46.673	15.617
25	16	Patrick Long Jan Heylen Trent Hindman	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'46.861	15.805
26	42	Don Yount Jaden Conwright Markus Palttala	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1'47.085	16.029
27	12	Frankie Montecalvo Zach Veach Robert Megennis	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'47.112	16.056
28	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'47.183	16.127
29	39	Richard Heistand Jeff Westphal Tyler McQuarrie	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1'47.239	16.183
30	88	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Andrew Davis	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'47.300	16.244
31	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'47.366	16.310
32	28	Daniel Morad Michael de Quesada Billy Johnson	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'47.483	16.427
33	9	Zacharie Robichon Laurens Vanthoor Lars Kern	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'47.494	16.438
34	19	Mikhail Goikhberg Franck Perera Tim Zimmermann	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'47.685	16.629
35	75	Kenny Habul Mikael Grenier Maro Engel	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'48.198	17.142
36	23	Roman De Angelis Ross Gunn Ian James	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'49.678	18.622
37	84	Theodor Olsen Dominic Cicero Ben Devlin	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'50.144	19.088
38	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Aidan Read	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	2'25.175	54.119
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