Estep Tops Thursday Practice at Watkins Glen

Photo: Porsche

Trenton Estep led the way in the opening day of Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands track action at Watkins Glen in preparation for this weekend’s seven and eighth rounds of the season.

Estep reeled off a best lap of 1:48.937 in his No. 6 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in Thursday’s afternoon session to edge out Practice 1 pace-setter Kay van Berlo by 0.223 seconds.

Pro class championship leader van Berlo went two-tenths quicker than his 1:49.316 lap benchmark from the morning in his No. 3 Kelly-Moss Porsche in the second session.

Parker Thompson was third quickest on the day in the No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche ahead of Riley Dickinson and Michael McCann, who completed the top-five respectively. 

Dickinson’s 1:49.337 from the morning held as the Texan’s quickest lap of the day. 

Only four drivers’ times from the opening session were quicker than their best laps in the afternoon.

Pro-Am was led by the No. 99 Kelly-Moss Porsche of Alan Metni while Topp Racing’s Bill Smith was quickest of the Am entries.

Metni recorded the 11th quickest overall time, two places ahead of Pro-Am rival Efrin Castro in the sister No. 65 Kelly-Moss Porsche.

Practice 2 ended a few minutes early due to the No. 19 Kelly-Moss entry of Tom Balamas, who had an off in Turn 10.

Qualifying gets underway Friday at 8:45 a.m. ET ahead of Race 1 at 1:25 p.m., with live coverage on Peacock, IMSA.tv and PorscheCarreraCup.us.

RESULTS: Practice (Combined)

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