McAleer Paces Opening Watkins Glen Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Stevan McAleer was quickest in the opening IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge practice for Saturday’s Tioga Downs Casino Resort 120 at Watkins Glen International.

The RS1 driver took his No. 28 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport to a best lap of 1:54.993 in Thursday’s hour-long session, edging out the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 of Bill Auberlen by 0.036 seconds.

The No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Eric Foss was third on the time charts, followed by the sister No. 72 entry driven by Kenny Murillo.

Matt Plumb completed the top-five overall and in GS in his No. 46 Team TGM Porsche.

TCR was led by the No. 15 Belgard & Techniseal Racing Audi RS 3 LMS TCR of Denis Dupont, thanks to his 1:56.649 lap time.

Dupont was nearly one-second clear of the nearest competition, the No. 2 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR of Ryan Norman, in second.

Mikey Taylor made it two Audis in the top-three in his No. 17 Unitronic JDC-Miller MotorSports entry.

The session saw a single red flag, for the No. 7 VOLT Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Alan Brynjolfsson, who went off at Turn 5 with less than ten minutes left on the clock.

The session restarted with five minutes remaining, although saw no noteworthy improvements.

Practice 2 is scheduled for 11:05 a.m. ET on Friday followed by qualifying later in the day.

RESULTS: Practice 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John