Watkins Glen IMSA: Blomqvist puts MSR Acura on top in FP1

There was a red flag within three minutes of the start of the session when the Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 stopped at Turn 3 before continuing under its own power, and during the brief stoppage it was extended as a result of Ryan Dalziel’s Era Motorsport LMP2 car stopping at Turn 4.

Just past the quarter-hour mark, the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.Rs of Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Lynn sat 1-2 at the top of the times, on 1min32.4sec laps, just 0.004sec apart, despite Lynn having a lap invalidated for a track limits violation. Then Bourdais trimmed a further three tenths off his lap. While the CGR cars sat in the pits, Pipo Derani moved the Action Express Racing #31 Whelen Engineering Caddy to the top of the pile, one tenth faster than Bourdais andwell over half a second faster than the quickest Acura ARX-05 at this stage, the Wayne Taylor Racing machine of Ricky Taylor.

Tom Blomqvist then put everyone into perspective with a remarkable 1min32.217sec to go quickest by almost 0.8sec in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura, before Taylor made it an Acura 1-2, albeit seven tenths off Blomqvist’s best. That left a gap that Bourdais plugged in the #01 Cadillac, 0.49sec from top spot.

The red flag had to fly again with 37mins to go when Wayne Boyd, late third man for the Forty7 Motorsports team, had his LMP3 car die on him and needed rescuing. Five minutes after the green flag flew, there was another red when Performance Tech Motorsports’ LMP3 car driven by Dan Goldburg stopped at Turn 10.

Some 44 of the 48 entries then left the pits with 22mins remaining, but somehow Bourdais’ co-driver Renger van der Zande found enough space to trim the deficit to the MSR Acura down to 0.322sec and pull over 0.35sec clear of WTR’s Acura.

However, with 5 minutes remaining, the MLT Motorsports LMP3 car driven by Tyler Maxson went straight on at Turn 7 and into the tires, ending the 90min session slightly early.

Behind the top three, Derani was fourth in the AXR #31 he’ll share with Olivier Pla and Mike Conway this weekend, while Earl Bamber in the #02 Cadillac was fifth ahead of Tristan Vautier’s JDC Miller Motorsports Cadillac. The second AXR car being shared by Jimmie Johnson, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike ROckenfeller ended up with a best time that left it behind five LMP2 cars.

The LMP2 class saw PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports shining as ever, Mikkel Jensen and Jonathan Bomarito separated by 0.7sec and the Tower Motorsports car of Louis Deletraz. DragonSpeed’s first IMSA session since Sebring saw the Henrik Hedman/Juan Pablo Montoya/Sebastian Montoya-shared car end the day fifth in class, 1.2sec off the best in class.

Colin Braun drove the CORE autosport car to the top of LMP3, 0.7sec faster than Garett Grist of Jr III Racing’s similar Ligier JS P320 and Dakota Dickerson in the now-crunched MLT machine.

Dirk Muller in the Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 led the GTD class by a mere 0.028sec in front of the highly impressive Andy Lally in Magnus Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage, and only 0.073sec ahead of Frankie Montecalvo’s #12 Lexus RC F run by Vasser Sullivan Racing.

Luis Perez Companc in the AF Corse Ferrari 488 was fourth, and this quartet was quicker than the top GTD Pro class car, the Aston Martin of Heart of Racing, driven to its quickest lap by Alex Riberas. Daniel Serra was only 0.046sec in arrears, a strong return by Risi Competizione’s Ferrari 488.

Whatever the model of BMW down the years, they tend to go well at The Glen, so it was no surprise to see Bill Auberlen in the Turner Motorsports BMW M4 slot into fifth in GTD, ahead of the Cetilar Racing Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, and Jan Heylen in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Augusto Farfus claimed third in GTD Pro driving the works BMW M4 run by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, ahead of Ben Barnicoat in the second Lexus and the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes of Maro Engel.

If Corvette Racing is to avenge its bitter luck at the 24 Hours of Le Mans two weeks ago, there is some work to do, judging by the #3 C8.R’s pace around The Glen in this session. The car to be shared by Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor was seventh and last of the GTD Pro cars, ahead of only five of the 16 GTD cars, and 0.75sec behind Riberas’ Aston.

Second practice begins at 8.00am local (Eastern) time on Saturday.

Cla	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist	DPi	Acura DPi	28	1'31.217
2	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais	DPi	Cadillac DPi	31	1'31.539	0.322
3	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Acura DPi	37	1'31.918	0.701
4	Olivier Pla Pipo Derani Mike Conway	DPi	Cadillac DPi	34	1'32.006	0.789
5	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn	DPi	Cadillac DPi	31	1'32.209	0.992
6	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval	DPi	Cadillac DPi	35	1'32.529	1.312
7	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	39	1'32.629	1.412
8	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	36	1'33.072	1.855
9	Steven Thomas Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	39	1'33.364	2.147
10	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	36	1'33.510	2.293
11	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	36	1'33.824	2.607
12	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	35	1'33.998	2.781
13	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Dylan Murry	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	39	1'34.310	3.093
14	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	36	1'39.789	8.572
15	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	32	1'40.489	9.272
16	Dakota Dickerson Josh Sarchet Tyler Maxson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	31	1'40.618	9.401
17	Nico Varrone Max Hanratty James Vance	LMP3	Duqueine D08	24	1'40.821	9.604
18	Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Gabby Chaves	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	29	1'41.014	9.797
19	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	11	1'41.116	9.899
20	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Lance Willsey	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	35	1'41.166	9.949
21	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	29	1'41.610	10.393
22	Orey Fidani Kyle Marcelli Lars Kern	LMP3	Duqueine D08	38	1'42.221	11.004
23	Anthony Mantella Matthew Bell Wayne Boyd	LMP3	Duqueine D08	31	1'42.594	11.377
24	Daniel Goldburg Rasmus Lindh Cameron Shields	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	33	1'42.775	11.558
25	Ugo De Danny Formal Dillon Machavern	LMP3	Duqueine D08	32	1'43.450	12.233
26	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	35	1'46.197	14.980
27	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	8	1'46.225	15.008
28	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	31	1'46.270	15.053
29	Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	33	1'46.335	15.118
30	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	31	1'46.356	15.139
31	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	GTD PRO	Ferrari 488 GT3	31	1'46.402	15.185
32	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	29	1'46.450	15.233
33	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	34	1'46.460	15.243
34	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	33	1'46.478	15.261
35	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	37	1'46.495	15.278
36	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	29	1'46.527	15.310
37	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	31	1'46.588	15.371
38	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	22	1'46.658	15.441
39	Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	19	1'46.810	15.593
40	Cooper MacNeil Maro Engel Mikael Grenier	GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	34	1'46.872	15.655
41	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin Ian James	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	35	1'46.885	15.668
42	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	28	1'47.055	15.838
43	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	25	1'47.104	15.887
44	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	27	1'47.490	16.273
45	Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	28	1'47.633	16.416
46	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	35	1'47.719	16.502
47	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	32	1'48.151	16.934
48	Jon Miller Paul Holton Patrick Gallagher	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	31	1'48.746	17.529
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