Cameron Quickest in Opening Watkins Glen Practice

Photo: Porsche

Dane Cameron ended up quickest in the opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

Cameron laid down a 1:34.175 lap time in the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 early in the 90-minute session, which was affected by a period of light rain, to edge out the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Tom Blomqvist by 0.172 seconds.

Filipe Albuquerque was third quickest in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, followed by the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Philipp Eng, who made it four different GTP manufacturers in the top-four.

Nick Tandy completed the top-five in the No. 6 Porsche, followed by Renger van der Zande’s No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac and the Phil Hanson-driven No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche.

The No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche was eighth with Gianmaria Bruni, while Matteo Cairoli put the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 ninth, ahead of the No. 25 BMW in tenth.

LMP2 was led by the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Mikkel Jensen, thanks to a 1:35.531 lap time by the Peugeot factory driver.

The No. 74 Riley Oreca of Felipe Fraga was second in class.

Laurin Heinrich led the way in GTD Pro in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, ahead of the GTD pace-setting No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo driven by Scott Andrews.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Bryan Sellers ended up second quickest in GTD Pro, ahead of Ross Gunn’s No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Alessio Rovera put the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo second in GTD, ahead of the similar No. 21 AF Corse example with Miguel Molina at the wheel.

The 90-minute session saw two red flags, both for accidents by the No. 8 Tower Motorsports Oreca.

John Farano first crashed the car at the entrance to the Esses, resulting in rear-end damage. Farano brought the Oreca back to the pit lane after the impact.

Co-driver Charlie Eastwood, meanwhile, crashed more heavily in Turn 7 with 14 minutes to go, resulting in a cleanup period and barrier repair.

The session restarted with less than five minutes to go but with no notable improvements.

Practice 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 9:10 a.m. EDT.

RESULTS: Practice 1

Source: Sports Car 365