Yardley Leads Thursday Practice at The Glen

Ryan Yardley topped the opening day of Porsche Carrera Cup North America track action at Watkins Glen International, setting the overall fastest practice lap time across a pair of sessions on Thursday.

The Topp Racing driver reeled off a 1:48.881 lap in his No. 78 Pro class Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in cooler morning conditions in first practice to set the overall best time of the day at the New York circuit.

Kellymoss’ Riley Dickinson was close behind, just 0.291 seconds off of Yardley’s overall pace with his best effort from Practice 1 also placing him ahead of Jimmy Llibre’s Practice 2-topping 1:49.573 lap time.

JTR Motorsports Engineering’s Jared Thomas set the fourth overall fastest Pro class time on Thursday in his No. 91 Porsche, with Aaron Jeansonne putting two Kellymoss among the top five fastest times of the day with his fastest practice lap from the morning session.

GMG Racing’s Patrick Mulcahy topped the Pro-Am times in both sessions, with his 1:50.608-second lap from Practice 2 serving as the overall best class time of the day, more than three tenths up on his benchmark time from Practice 1 and placing him 11th-quickest overall on the day.

Scott Blind paced the Masters class field with his No. 45 Ruckus Racing Porsche going to the top of the class times in Practice 2, edging out Peter Atwater’s best effort from first practice by 0.112 seconds.

First practice was momentarily interrupted by a red flag after race control noted debris on track near Turn 3. Despite the three-minute stoppage and a handful of cars receiving warnings or penalties for track limits violations, the field of 30 drivers completed the session. without so much as a spin.

Sabre Cook went off course in her JDX Racing Porsche at Turn 1 in the closing stages of second practice, but continued on without incident. Practice 2 ran green from start to finish, allowing the driver the maximum amount of track time before qualifying and racing begins on Friday.

Porsche Carrera Cup North America will qualify to set the grid for Race 1 at 8:30 p.m. EST on Friday, followed by racing action getting underway at 2 p.m. EST that afternoon.

RESULTS: Practice (Combined)