Blomqvist Quickest in Opening Practice at The Glen

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Tom Blomqvist put Meyer Shank Racing quickest in the opening practice session of the weekend for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

Blomqvist reeled off a best lap of 1:31.217 midway through the 90-minute session to outpace the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Sebastien Bourdais.

Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 was third quickest, followed by the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac and No. 02 CGR Cadillac, which completed the top-five.

LMP2 was led by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Mikkel Jensen, while Colin Braun topped the time charts in LMP3 in his No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier JS P3 Nissan.

Mike Skeen ended up quickest overall among the GT3-based cars, putting the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo atop the time sheets late in the session.

Skeen’s 1:46.197 lap time edged out the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Andy Lally by 0.028 seconds.

The Magnus Aston, however, completed only eight laps in the session due to handling issues.

GTD cars took the top four positions, with Frankie Montecalvo third in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 and Toni Vilander’s No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020.

The Heart of Racing’s Alex Riberas was quickest in GTD Pro, although two-tenths down on Mueller’s pace-setting time in GTD.

Riberas’ 1:46.356 lap time was 0.046 seconds quicker than the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Daniel Serra, who was second in class.

The session saw four red flags, the first for the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes of Philip Ellis, who stopped on track and was followed by the No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca in a separate stoppage.

Wayne Boyd’s No. 7 Forty7 Motorsports Duqueine D08 Nissan also stopped on track to bring out another red, followed by a spin by the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier of Dan Goldburg that resulted in the third stoppage.

An off-course excursion for the No. 58 MLT Motorsports Ligier of Tyler Maxson in Turn 7 resulted in the final red flag with less than six minutes left on the clock, with the session not restarting.

Practice 2 gets underway Saturday at 8 a.m. ET.

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