Watkins Glen IMSA: Tincknell puts Mazda top in first practice

Castroneves’ co-driver in the #7 Acura ARX-05 Ricky Taylor had set the fastest lap until the ex-IndyCar star chipped two-tenths off that time. But with just a couple of minutes to go, Tincknell’s #55 Mazda Team Joest entry went just over 0.1sec faster to grab P1.

With Will Hardeman bringing out a red flag for a shunt in the #19 Moorespeed Audi R8, Tincknell’s time went unchallenged.

Behind Castroneves was teammate Dane Cameron who, along with Juan Pablo Montoya, has won the last two rounds of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He was one-tenth quicker than last year’s polesitter, CORE autosport’s Colin Braun in the Nissan DPi.

Felipe Nasr was fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, his top time in the #31 Action Express Racing entry being almost 1sec off Ticknell’s benchmark, but faster than Tristan Nunez in the second Mazda.

Mike Conway, preparing for his first IMSA race of the year after visa trouble left him unable to compete in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, put the #5 AXR Cadillac into seventh, just ahead of Renger van der Zande in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.

The two Ford GTs of Richard Westbrook and Dirk Muller topped the GT Le Mans class ahead of Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner in the only Corvette C7.R to hit the track, while Laurens Vanthoor slotted the best Porsche ahead of the two BMWs.

The other Porsche had to go back to the paddock for rectification of a power steering problem.

Andy Lally’s Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracan topped GT Daytona ahead of the Bill Auberlen-piloted BMW M6 of Turner Motorsports and Dirk Werner in the Black Swan Racing Porsche.

Session results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	55	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell Olivier Pla	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'30.690
2	7	Ricky Taylor Helio Castroneves	DPi	Acura DPi	1'30.802	0.112
3	6	Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron	DPi	Acura DPi	1'31.224	0.534
4	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun Romain Dumas	DPi	Nissan DPi	1'31.334	0.644
5	31	Felipe Nasr Eric Curran Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'31.677	0.987
6	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez Timo Bernhard	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'31.841	1.151
7	5	Joao Barbosa Mike Conway Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'31.871	1.181
8	10	Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'31.910	1.220
9	85	Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier Juan Piedrahita	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'32.904	2.214
10	50	Will Owen Rene Binder	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'34.046	3.356
11	52	Matt McMurry Gabriel Aubry Eric Lux	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'34.373	3.683
12	84	Simon Trummer Stephen Simpson Chris Miller	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'34.508	3.818
13	38	Cameron Cassels Andrew Evans Kyle Masson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'34.846	4.156
14	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	1'42.673	11.983
15	66	Joey Hand Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	1'42.716	12.026
16	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'42.923	12.233
17	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'42.948	12.258
18	24	Jesse Krohn John Edwards	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'43.447	12.757
19	25	Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'43.466	12.776
20	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'45.406	14.716
21	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	1'45.652	14.962
22	540	Marc Miller Marco Seefried Dirk Werner	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'45.696	15.006
23	48	Bryan Sellers Ryan Hardwick Corey Lewis	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'45.827	15.137
24	29	Christopher Mies Richard Feller Daniel Morad	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1'46.117	15.427
25	19	Andrew Davis Alex Riberas Will Hardeman	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1'46.439	15.749
26	14	Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth Philipp Frommenwiler	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'46.473	15.783
27	73	Patrick Lindsey Patrick Long Nicholas Boulle	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'46.594	15.904
28	33	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'46.637	15.947
29	86	Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman Justin Marks	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'46.679	15.989
30	9	Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon Lars Kern	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'46.856	16.166
31	63	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Jeff Westphal	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'47.350	16.660
32	12	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'48.024	17.334
33	57	Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen Ana Beatriz	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'48.177	17.487
34	8	Parker Chase Ryan Dalziel Mike Skeen	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1'49.267	18.577
35	47	Brandon Gdovic Don Yount Jacob Eidson	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'49.752	19.062
36	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R
37	911	Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR
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