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WeatherTech Championship

Pla Quickest on Friday at Watkins Glen

Meyer Shank Racing quickest on opening day of practice at Watkins Glen International…

Photo: IMSA

Olivier Pla led the way in the opening practice session of the weekend for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, putting Meyer Shank Racing and Acura atop the time sheets on Friday.

The Frenchman’s 1:31.056 lap time in the No. 60 MSR Acura ARX-05 was 0.591 seconds quicker than the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi.V-R of Mike Conway. 

Detroit winner Renger van der Zande put the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac third quickest, followed by the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura DPi of Alexander Rossi in fourth.

Loic Duval completed the top-five in the Mustang Sampling-sponsored JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac.

LMP2 was led by the No 11 WIN Autosport Oreca 07 Gibson of Tristan Nunez while Oliver Askew paced LMP3 in the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

Corvette Racing ended the day 1-2 in GT Le Mans, with Nick Tandy’s 1:42.517 edging out teammate Antonio Garcia by less than two-tenths.

GT Daytona was led by the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth, who edged out Patrick Long’s No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and the Jaden Conwright-driven No. 42 NTe Sport Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo.

The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring GTLM class-winning WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 suffered a right-rear puncture in the hands of Matt Campbell, which brought out one of two red flags.

The first red was for an accident by Kyle Tilley in the No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca in Turn 1 after contact with the No. 48 Action Express Cadillac of Simon Pagenaud.

Tilley climbed from the car uninjured and it returned to action later in the session with Dwight Merriman at the wheel.

Other cars to hit trouble included the No. 91 Riley Motorsports Ligier LMP3 of Dylan Murry, which made contact with the barriers and Laurens Vanthoor’s No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, which ground to a halt in the infield.

The originally scheduled 60-minute session was extended by 30 minutes for Bronze-rated drivers only. 

Practice 2 is scheduled for 8 a.m. ET on Saturday.

RESULTS: Practice 1

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

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