Watkins Glen IMSA: Tincknell puts Mazda top in first practice
Mazda's Harry Tincknell lapped Watkins Glen in 1min30.690sec to beat Helio Castroneves’ best efforts for Acura Team Penske by just 0.112sec in opening practice for this weekend’s Sahlen’s 6 Hours.
Castroneves’ co-driver in the #7 Acura ARX-05 Ricky Taylor had set the fastest lap until the ex-IndyCar star chipped two-tenths off that time. But with just a couple of minutes to go, Tincknell’s #55 Mazda Team Joest entry went just over 0.1sec faster to grab P1.
With Will Hardeman bringing out a red flag for a shunt in the #19 Moorespeed Audi R8, Tincknell’s time went unchallenged.
Behind Castroneves was teammate Dane Cameron who, along with Juan Pablo Montoya, has won the last two rounds of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He was one-tenth quicker than last year’s polesitter, CORE autosport’s Colin Braun in the Nissan DPi.
Felipe Nasr was fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, his top time in the #31 Action Express Racing entry being almost 1sec off Ticknell’s benchmark, but faster than Tristan Nunez in the second Mazda.
Mike Conway, preparing for his first IMSA race of the year after visa trouble left him unable to compete in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, put the #5 AXR Cadillac into seventh, just ahead of Renger van der Zande in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.
The two Ford GTs of Richard Westbrook and Dirk Muller topped the GT Le Mans class ahead of Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner in the only Corvette C7.R to hit the track, while Laurens Vanthoor slotted the best Porsche ahead of the two BMWs.
The other Porsche had to go back to the paddock for rectification of a power steering problem.
Andy Lally’s Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracan topped GT Daytona ahead of the Bill Auberlen-piloted BMW M6 of Turner Motorsports and Dirk Werner in the Black Swan Racing Porsche.
Session results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 55 |  Jonathan Bomarito  Harry Tincknell  Olivier Pla | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'30.690 | |
| 2 | 7 | Ricky Taylor  Helio Castroneves | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'30.802 | 0.112 |
| 3 | 6 |  Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'31.224 | 0.534 |
| 4 | 54 | Jon Bennett Colin Braun Romain Dumas | DPi | Nissan DPi | 1'31.334 | 0.644 |
| 5 | 31 | Felipe Nasr Eric Curran Pipo Derani | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'31.677 | 0.987 |
| 6 | 77 | Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez  Timo Bernhard | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'31.841 | 1.151 |
| 7 | 5 |  Joao Barbosa Mike Conway Filipe Albuquerque | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'31.871 | 1.181 |
| 8 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'31.910 | 1.220 |
| 9 | 85 |  Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier Juan Piedrahita | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'32.904 | 2.214 |
| 10 | 50 | Will Owen  Rene Binder | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'34.046 | 3.356 |
| 11 | 52 | Matt McMurry Gabriel Aubry Eric Lux | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'34.373 | 3.683 |
| 12 | 84 |  Simon Trummer  Stephen Simpson Chris Miller | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'34.508 | 3.818 |
| 13 | 38 | Cameron Cassels Andrew Evans Kyle Masson | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'34.846 | 4.156 |
| 14 | 67 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'42.673 | 11.983 |
| 15 | 66 | Joey Hand Dirk Muller | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'42.716 | 12.026 |
| 16 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'42.923 | 12.233 |
| 17 | 912 |  Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'42.948 | 12.258 |
| 18 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'43.447 | 12.757 |
| 19 | 25 | Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'43.466 | 12.776 |
| 20 | 44 | John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'45.406 | 14.716 |
| 21 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Dillon Machavern | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'45.652 | 14.962 |
| 22 | 540 | Marc Miller Marco Seefried Dirk Werner | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'45.696 | 15.006 |
| 23 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Ryan Hardwick Corey Lewis | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'45.827 | 15.137 |
| 24 | 29 | Christopher Mies Richard Feller Daniel Morad | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'46.117 | 15.427 |
| 25 | 19 | Andrew Davis  Alex Riberas Will Hardeman | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'46.439 | 15.749 |
| 26 | 14 | Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth Philipp Frommenwiler | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'46.473 | 15.783 |
| 27 | 73 | Patrick Lindsey Patrick Long Nicholas Boulle | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'46.594 | 15.904 |
| 28 | 33 | Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'46.637 | 15.947 |
| 29 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman Justin Marks | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'46.679 | 15.989 |
| 30 | 9 | Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon Lars Kern | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'46.856 | 16.166 |
| 31 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Jeff Westphal | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'47.350 | 16.660 |
| 32 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell Aaron Telitz | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'48.024 | 17.334 |
| 33 | 57 | Katherine Legge  Christina Nielsen Ana Beatriz | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'48.177 | 17.487 |
| 34 | 8 | Parker Chase Ryan Dalziel Mike Skeen | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'49.267 | 18.577 |
| 35 | 47 | Brandon Gdovic Don Yount Jacob Eidson | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'49.752 | 19.062 |
| 36 | 3 | Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | ||
| 37 | 911 | Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | ||
| View full results | ||||||
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About this article
| Series | IMSA |
| Event | Watkins Glen |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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