Negri Fastest on Friday at Watkins Glen

As he was in all three sessions at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Ozz Negri was fastest in both of Friday’s one-hour free practice sessions at Watkins Glen International, site of this weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.

Negri, in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda, set the fastest time of the day in the morning one-hour session at 1:38.055, nearly one second clear of the second-placed No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP.

In the afternoon one-hour session, Negri led again, albeit at a slightly slower time of 1:38.366.

Second through fourth in the afternoon were separated by less than a tenth, with the No. 5 and No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette DPs and No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford at 1:38.740, 1:38.770 and 1:38.785, respectively.

Colin Braun led the way in Prototype Challenge, with a best time of 1:40.815 in the No. 54 CORE autosport Oreca FLM09 set in the first session. CORE is still in search of its first PC race win this year.

Starworks Motorsport led the afternoon session, with Renger van der Zande setting a best time of 1:41.471 in the No. 8 Oreca FLM09.

Corvette led the morning session, while BMW edged ahead in the afternoon in GT Le Mans.

John Edwards set a 1:44.177 in the No. 24 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE, which was just ahead of Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R at 1:44.189.

Garcia, who along with Jan Magnussen is in the Larbre Competition Corvette chassis this weekend, led the morning session at 1:44.284.

The lone Ferrari F458 Italia and Porsche 911 RSRs were a bit behind.

Kuno Wittmer was fastest in GT Daytona in the morning at 1:48.832, despite briefly stopping on track at the Bus Stop chicane in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3.

That time held up as best of the day, as the best afternoon time was set by Leh Keen in the No. 22 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America at 1:48.984.

Porsches were 1-2-3 in the afternoon, albeit just shy of Wittmer’s morning time.

Third practice occurs at 10:15 a.m. ET on Saturday morning.

RESULTS: Practice 1
RESULTS: Practice 2