Braun Quickest in Rain-Affected Opening Practice

Meyer Shank Racing’s Colin Braun went quickest in a rain-hit opening practice for this weekend’s six-hour IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Watkins Glen.

Braun steered the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 to a 1:33.563 lap time around 20 minutes into the 90-minute Friday afternoon session, which had dry running for the opening third until steady rainfall arrived over the circuit.

By the 40-minute mark, most of the 57-car field had returned to the track after transitioning to wet-weather Michelin tires.

The early rain locked in the classification until the end of the play, with Braun ending up 1.229 seconds clear of Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche 963.

Porsche Penske Motorsport’s pair of GTP cars ran first and second in the early stages but Braun’s improvement dropped the No. 7 to second, followed by Nick Tandy who ended up third after posting a 1:34.863 behind the wheel of the No. 6 machine.

Renger van der Zande was fourth for Chip Ganassi Racing as the Cadillac V-Series.Rs from CGR and Action Express Racing both ran 1.6 seconds off the overall pace.

The two Team RLL-prepared BMW M Hybrid V8s stood on either side of the two-second mark in sixth and seventh.

An opening-lap spin for No. 24 BMW Philipp Eng at Turn 5 was the only major drama in GTP, although two cars failed to beat the best of the LMP2 runners in the available dry running time.

The No. 10 Acura from Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport placed 11th overall while the JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche ranked 15th.

Mikkel Jensen set the pace in LMP2 with a 1:36.066 effort in the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson.

It wasn’t an entirely smooth session for TDS, however, as the French team’s sister car brought out a 13-minute red flag during the rain spell after an accident for John Falb at Turn 6.

The American driver nosed into the outside tire barriers at the sharp left-hand corner, resulting in damage to the front-rear corner of the No. 35 prototype.

Another red flag occurred right at the end of the session when Luke Berkeley spun the NTE Sport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 into the barrier at the final corner.

The fastest lap in GTD Pro went to Daniel Serra who produced a time of 1:46.552 for Ferrari team Risi Competizione, although it was the GTD-class BMW M4 GT3 from Paul Miller Racing that went quickest outright in the production-based ranks.

Bryan Sellers submitted a 1:46.457 to beat Kellymoss with Riley Porsche driver Jaxon Evans by 0.066 seconds, and Serra by a further three-hundredths of a second.

Garett Grist was the fastest driver in LMP3 courtesy of a 1:41.139 in the JR III Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

RESULTS: Practice 1