IMSA Watkins Glen: Acura tops first practice from Porsche and Cadillac

The 90-minute session began in dry conditions with an early Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 1-2, before Braun took the top spot in Meyer Shank Racing’s Daytona 24 Hours-winning ARX-06 with a lap of 1m33.563s.

Felipe Nasr was second quickest for the Porsche factory team in the #5 car, 1.2s off the pace but a tenth clear of Nick Tandy in the sister #6 entry.

Rain started to fall just before the one-third point of the session, sending the majority of the field into the pits. With more showers forecast across this weekend, there was plenty of scope for rain running among the bumper 57-car field.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Renger van der Zande just managed to squeeze in a time of 1m35.181s before the rain, ahead of the similar Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken.

The BMW M Hybrid V8s of Philipp Eng and Connor De Phillippi were next up but 2s off the pace.

The second Acura of Ricky Taylor (Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport) didn’t get a representative lap time in before the rain, and was classified 11th overall, with Mike Rockenfeller down in 15th in the final GTP entry, the JDC/Miller MotorSports Porsche.

Steven Thomas led the way in LMP2 for TDS Racing, half a second clear of Christian Rasmussen (Era Motorsport) and Ed Jones (High Class Racing).

IndyCar racer Devlin DeFrancesco suffered a quick spin in his Rick Ware Racing entry, but a far bigger crash befell John Falb, who shunted his #35 TDS car at Turn 6 that caused severe damage to its right-front corner and caused a red flag for recovery and barrier repairs.

Garett Grist (Jr III Racing) led the LMP3 field, just ahead of Gar Robinson’s Riley-run car.

BMW sets GTD pace, ahead of Porsche and Ferrari

In GTD, Bryan Sellers was the early pacesetter in Paul Miller Racing’s BMW M4, despite being given a drive-through penalty for repeated track limits infractions.

He lapped 0.066s ahead of Kay van Berlo in the #91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911, who was on the right side of the same tenth as Pro class leader Davide Rigon (Risi Competitzione Ferrari 296) and Andy Lally (Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage).

The session ended when Luke Berkeley crashed the #42 Lamborghini in the closing seconds causing a second red flag.

Practice 2 starts at 8am ET tomorrow.

IMSA Watkins Glen - first practice results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun	GTP	Acura ARX-06	1'33.563
2	7	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr	GTP	Porsche 963	1'34.792	1.229
3	6	Nick Tandy Mathieu Jaminet	GTP	Porsche 963	1'34.863	1.300
4	01	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	1'35.181	1.618
5	31	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims Jack Aitken	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	1'35.254	1.691
6	24	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	1'35.504	1.941
7	25	Connor de Phillippi Nick Yelloly	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	1'35.672	2.109
8	11	Steven Thomas Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'36.066	2.503
9	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'36.612	3.049
10	20	Dennis Andersen Ed Jones Anders Fjordbach	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'36.727	3.164
11	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Louis Deletraz	GTP	Acura ARX-06	1'37.014	3.451
12	35	John Falb Giedo van der Garde Josh Pierson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'37.220	3.657
13	52	Ben Keating Paul-Loup Chatin Alex Quinn	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'37.598	4.035
14	8	Salih Yoluc Kyffin Simpson Will Stevens	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'38.458	4.895
15	5	Tijmen van der Helm Mike Rockenfeller	GTP	Porsche 963	1'38.722	5.159
16	04	George Kurtz Ben Hanley Nolan Siegel	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'38.816	5.253
17	51	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Pietro Fittipaldi	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'39.674	6.111
18	88	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Nicklas Nielsen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'41.123	7.560
19	30	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Dakota Dickerson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'41.139	7.576
20	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Josh Burdon	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'41.249	7.686
21	85	Till Bechtolsheimer Daniel Goldburg Rasmus Lindh	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'41.685	8.122
22	17	Anthony Mantella Wayne Boyd Nicolás Varrone	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'41.768	8.205
23	36	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Glenn van	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'42.187	8.624
24	13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'42.335	8.772
25	38	Christopher Allen Connor Bloum Alex Kirby	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'42.878	9.315
26	54	Jason Rabe Andrew Pinkerton Stevan McAleer	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'43.473	9.910
27	4	Seth Lucas Tonis Kasemets Trenton Estep	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'43.966	10.403
28	33	Joao Barbosa Nicolas Pino Lance Willsey	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'44.468	10.905
29	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'46.457	12.894
30	91	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo Jaxon Evans	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'46.523	12.960
31	62	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	GTD PRO	Ferrari 296 GT3	1'46.552	12.989
32	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'46.564	13.001
33	95	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull John Edwards	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	1'46.606	13.043
34	23	Onofrio Triarsi Charles Scardina Alessio Rovera	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	1'46.743	13.180
35	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Parker Thompson	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'46.858	13.295
36	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	1'46.871	13.308
37	16	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'47.006	13.443
38	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	1'47.103	13.540
39	77	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman Maxwell Root	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'47.137	13.574
40	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'47.166	13.603
41	79	Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon	GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'47.434	13.871
42	27	Roman De Angelis Marco Sorensen Ian James	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'47.524	13.961
43	023	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'47.566	14.003
44	96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley Michael Dinan	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'47.661	14.098
45	32	Mike Skeen Mikael Grenier Kenton Koch	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'47.758	14.195
46	9	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'47.761	14.198
47	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	1'47.787	14.224
48	57	Russell Ward Raffaele Marciello Indy Dontje	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'47.813	14.250
49	63	Andrea Caldarelli Jordan Lee Pepper	GTD PRO	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	1'48.010	14.447
50	61	Simon Mann Miguel Molina Ulysse De Pauw	GTD PRO	Ferrari 296 GT3	1'48.121	14.558
51	92	David Brule Alec Udell Julien Andlauer	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'48.161	14.598
52	93	Ashton Harrison Danny Formal Kyle Marcelli	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'48.508	14.945
53	80	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx Gunnar Jeannette	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	1'48.831	15.268
54	78	Mikhail Goikhberg Loris Spinelli Patrick Liddy	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	1'49.314	15.751
55	66	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge Marc Miller	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'49.488	15.925
56	83	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Doriane Pin	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	1'54.136	20.573
57	42	Jaden Conwright Luke Berkeley Rob Ferriol	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	2'06.573	33.010
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