Rain began to fall 30 minutes into the first practice session for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, becoming both a blessing and a curse. While it kept many teams from setting a truly representative dry time, it also allowed IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams a good chance to prepare for the predicted rain on race day.
“The Acura GTP car has been really fast in the dry conditions, but we haven’t had a chance to learn it very much in the rain,” said Colin Braun, watching the weather before the session. “So that’s a bit of an unknown, I think, for us. But I’m really excited to get to drive it in the rain. I think all the tools, all the options, all the work these guys have been doing that to make it a good car in the dry will also make it a good car in the rain.”
Braun, who set the quick time in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 during the dry part of the session, and the rest of the drivers had plenty of opportunity to figure out their cars in the rain, as the track was well and truly soaked by the end of the session, slowing lap times by some 20s.
With only half an hour of dry running in the 90-minute session, there was a big spread of times in many of the classes. Braun’s 1m33.563s was 1.229s better than Felipe Nasr, second quick in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963. Nasr, in turn, edged teammate Nick Tandy in the No. 6 PPM 963 by 0.071s. As the rain began to let off toward the end of the session, Brauns’ teammate Tom Blomqvist was consistently quickest, getting down to a 1m48s lap; Augusto Farfus (No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8) and Pipo Derani (No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R) both posted 1m49s laps.
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Mikkel Jensen led LMP2 in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA at 1m36.066s over Ryan Dalziel in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA. Garrett Grist put the No. 30 Jr III Racing on top of LMP3 with a 1m41.139s.
GTD cars topped the time sheets for the GT cars, Paul Miller Racing and Kellymoss with Riley taking the top two spots. Bryan Sellers was the quick driver in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 at 1m46.457s, with Jaxon Evans putting the No. 91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3R in second, 0.66s off Seller’s best time. Leading GTD PRO and third overall among the GT cars was Daniel Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296, making its first appearance since Sebring as a Michelin Endurance Cup-only entry. Serra’s 1m46.552s lap was 0.054s better than Bill Auberlen, who had the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 second in GTD PRO, fifth among the GT cars. Andy Lally inserted the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in between the top GTD PRO cars on the time sheets as third in GTD. Ross Gunn was third in GTD PRO in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.
Practice was interrupted by a 14-minute long read flag when Jon Falb took the No. 35 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 off track and into the tire wall at Turn 6. Falb was unhurt, but removing the car and repairing the tire wall took some time. The session also officially ended under red flag when Luke Berkeley spun the GTD-class No. 42 NTE Sport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 exiting Turn 10 with only a few seconds left on the clock.
Dozens of track-limit violations at Turns 1 and 8 were logged during the session, leading to many deleted times and a few drive-through penalties.
Up Next: A 1h45m split practice session Saturday at 8 a.m. ET.