Westbrook Leads Ford Qualifying Sweep at Watkins Glen

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Richard Westbrook has led a Ford Chip Ganassi Racing front row sweep in GT Le Mans qualifying for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

Westbrook laid down a 1:41.948 in the class championship-leading No. 67 Ford GT to edge out teammate Joey Hand by 0.111 seconds.

The Englishman, who set the three fastest laps in the session, claimed his second class pole at Watkins Glen in the last three years and maintained Ford’s undefeated pole streak in GTLM at the New York circuit.

It marked Westbrook’s sixth career WeatherTech Championship pole, a new series record.

The pair of Corvette Racing entries made late-session improvements to qualify third and fourth, thanks to a 1:42.365 lap by Tommy Milner and Antonio Garcia’s 1:42.497, in the Nos. 4 and 3 Corvette C7.Rs, respectively.

Garcia, however, spun in the Bus Stop prior to setting his fast lap.

Porsche GT Team will line up fifth and sixth ahead of the pair of Team RLL BMW M8 GTEs, which continued to struggle and will start of the rear of the field.

Hawksworth on GTD Pole

Jack Hawksworth claimed his second GT Daytona class pole in the last three races, taking the No. 15 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 to the top spot in qualifying.

The Englishman’s 1:44.499 lap time pipped the No. 29 Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS of Christopher Mies by 0.112 seconds.

It marked Hawksworth’s third career WeatherTech Championship pole position and a new track record in GTD.

Kyle Marcelli made it two Lexus entries in the top three, followed by the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 of Alvaro Parente and the sister Lawson Aschenbach-driven No. 93 entry, which completed the top-five.

The top eight GTD cars were separated by less than one-second in the session.

The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen gets underway Sunday at 9:45 a.m. EDT.

RESULTS: Qualifying

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