Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia
Qualifying report

Watkins Glen IMSA: Taylor snatches pole, leads Acura 1-2

Ricky Taylor scored pole for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05, beating the similar car of Meyer Shank Racing.

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 Acura DPi: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Alexander Rossi

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 Acura DPi: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Alexander Rossi

Art Fleischmann

DPi

The Acuras were in a different class from their rivals, and it was Taylor who delivered a 1min30.022sec lap around the beautiful 3.4-mile Watkins Glen course. That beat Dane Cameron’s best effort in the MSR car by 0.119sec, and although Cameron tried to respond, he could never sew all three sectors together as the Michelins went past their peak.

The normally-aspirated cars were left gasping, a further half-second down, but Renger van der Zande performed well for Chip Ganassi Racing with third place in the fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi in Action Express Racing’s extra car for endurance races, the #48 Ally Racing entry. This is Kobayashi’s first trip to The Glen, so he did well to edge his teammate Pipo Derani in the Whelen Engineering car.

Oliver Jarvis was a second off top spot in the sole Mazda RT24-P, but three tenths clear of Tristan Vautier’s best effort in the JDC-Miller MotorSports Caddy.

LMP2 & LMP3

#11 WIN Autosport, ORECA LMP2 07: Steven Thomas

#11 WIN Autosport, ORECA LMP2 07: Steven Thomas

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Steven Thomas took LMP2 pole for WIN Autosport after shading Ben Keating in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports by a mere 0.018sec, the latter spinning away his final chance of taking P1. It was a superb comeback by Thomas after he had a shunt in morning practice.

Dwight Merriman was over three seconds away in the Era Motorsport entry, a few hundredths ahead of John Farano.

In LMP3, Austin McCusker was the first driver to lay down a representative time, and finally delivered a 1min40.404sec lap to snatch top spot in the United Autosports entry by 0.570sec.

Jarett Andretti’s attempts to trim that gap came unhinged by a wild moment at the Bus Stop chicane, which was only prevented from becoming something worse by his sprint car instincts.

Georg Kurtz was third in the CORE autosport entry, ahead of Dan Goldburg in the Performance Tech Motorsports car.

GT Le Mans and GT Daytona

#3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R, GTLM: Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor

#3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R, GTLM: Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Antonio Garcia and Tommy Milner made it a Corvette 1-2 in GT Le Mans with the former setting a 1min40.944sec in the #3 C8.R, 0.374sec faster than the sister car.

Connor De Phillippi was much the faster of the two BMW drivers in third ahead of John Edwards, while Cooper MacNeil was 1.4sec off the ultimate pace in the WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19.

In the session that set the grid for GTD, Kyle Kirkwood, the morning practice pacesetter in the #14 Lexus RC F of Vasser Sullivan, was the first driver to duck under the 1min46sec barrier but was almost immediately displaced by IMSA debutant, NTe Sport’s Jaden Conwright in the Audi R8.

However, Kirkwood’s next flyer saw him deliver a middle sector over half a second quicker than Conwright, more than compensating for the Audi’s superiority in sectors 1 and 3, and the Indy Lights ace further improved on his final lap to close out with a 1min45.539sec lap that produced pole.

Trent Hindman, the 2019 GTD champion has looked increasingly confident in a Porsche 911 GT3 R and slotted into second for Wright Motorsport. Still, Conwright could be gratified with P3, ahead of the Alegra Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Daniel Morad.

Robby Foley of Turner Motorsports was half a second off the ultimate pace in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 in fifth, ahead of the second Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo.

Tyler McQuarrie was seventh for CarBahn with Peregrine Racing, ahead of the faster of the two Lamborghini Huracans, Corey Lewis in the Paul Miller Racing entry.

However, in the GTD points qualifying session, the PMR Lambo failed with poor Bryan Sellers at the wheel, and he trickled into pitlane after just a couple of laps.

Up front, the #14 VSR Lexus fulltimer Jack Hawksworth kept up Kirkwood’s fine work, with a tremendous 1min45.081 sec and the sister car of Zach Veach sprung up to second, 0.28sec slower.

Pat Long scored third in the Wright Porsche, ahead of the consistently impressive Richard Heistand in the Carbahn Peregrine Audi, while Bill Auberlen was fifth in the Turner BMW ahead of Laurens Vanthoor in the Pfaff Porsche.

Qualifying results:

Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Time Gap
1 10 United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United States Alexander Rossi
DPi Acura DPi 1'30.022
2 60 United States Dane Cameron
France Olivier Pla
DPi Acura DPi 1'30.141 0.119
3 01 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Denmark Kevin Magnussen
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'30.637 0.615
4 48 United States Jimmie Johnson
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
France Simon Pagenaud
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'30.671 0.649
5 31 Brazil Felipe Nasr
United Kingdom Mike Conway
Brazil Pipo Derani
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'30.824 0.802
6 55 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
United States Jonathan Bomarito
DPi Mazda DPi 1'31.075 1.053
7 5 France Tristan Vautier
France Loic Duval
France Sébastien Bourdais
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'31.324 1.302
8 11 United States Thomas Steven
United States Tristan Nunez
United States Thomas Merrill
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'35.304 5.282
9 52 United States Ben Keating
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
United States Scott Huffaker
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'35.322 5.300
10 18 United States Dwight Merriman
United Kingdom Kyle Tilley
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'38.455 8.433
11 8 Canada John Farano
France Gabriel Aubry
United States James French
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'38.481 8.459
12 22 James McGuire
United Kingdom Wayne Boyd
United Kingdom Guy Smith
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'39.510 9.488
13 2 Niklas Kruetten
Edouard Cauhaupe
United States Austin McCusker
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'40.404 10.382
14 3 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'40.944 10.922
15 36 United States Jarett Andretti
United States Oliver Askew
United States Marco Andretti
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'40.974 10.952
16 4 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'41.318 11.296
17 25 United States Connor de Phillippi
Austria Philipp Eng
Canada Bruno Spengler
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'41.357 11.335
18 54 United States Jon Bennett
United States George Kurtz
United States Colin Braun
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'41.501 11.479
19 38 Sweden Rasmus Lindh
Guatemala Mateo Llarena
Dan Goldburg
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'41.798 11.776
20 24 United States John Edwards
Finland Jesse Krohn
Brazil Augusto Farfus
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'41.932 11.910
21 84 Theodor Olsen
Dominic Cicero
United Kingdom Ben Devlin
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'42.256 12.234
22 79 United States Cooper MacNeil
France Mathieu Jaminet
Australia Matt Campbell
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'42.363 12.341
23 74 United States Gar Robinson
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Australia Scott Andrews
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'43.100 13.078
24 91 United States Jim Cox
United States Dylan Murry
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'43.263 13.241
25 14 United States Aaron Telitz
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United States Kyle Kirkwood
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'45.081 15.059
26 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Zach Veach
United States Robert Megennis
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'45.363 15.341
27 16 United States Patrick Long
Belgium Jan Heylen
United States Trent Hindman
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'45.497 15.475
28 39 United States Richard Heistand
United States Jeff Westphal
Tyler McQuarrie
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 1'45.668 15.646
29 96 United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
Australia Aidan Read
GTD BMW M6 GT3 1'45.674 15.652
30 9 Canada Zacharie Robichon
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Germany Lars Kern
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'45.776 15.754
31 28 Canada Daniel Morad
United States Michael de Quesada
United States Billy Johnson
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'45.792 15.770
32 19 Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
France Franck Perera
Germany Tim Zimmermann
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'45.866 15.844
33 23 Canada Roman De Angelis
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
United Kingdom Ian James
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'46.100 16.078
34 75 Australia Kenny Habul
Canada Mikael Grenier
Germany Maro Engel
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'46.615 16.593
35 44 United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
United States Spencer Pumpelly
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'47.117 17.095
36 88 United States Rob Ferriol
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
United States Andrew Davis
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'47.332 17.310
37 1 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
United States Corey Lewis
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'48.179 18.157
38 42 United States Don Yount
United States Jaden Conwright
Finland Markus Palttala
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 1'49.758 19.736

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Watkins Glen IMSA: Cameron keeps MSR Acura on top in FP2
Next article Watkins Glen IMSA: Nasr leads Six Hours at halfway mark

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia