Watkins Glen 240 IMSA: Taylor takes pole in Acura 1-2
Ricky Taylor scored his second IMSA SportsCar Championship pole position in as many weekends at Watkins Glen, once again leading an Acura 1-2 for his father's Wayne Taylor Racing squad.
IMSA is returning to the former US Grand Prix venue for a 2hr40m race, following last weekend's six-hour enduro, to fill the void left by the cancelled Mosport round.
As he did last weekend, reigning series champion Taylor claimed pole over Meyer Shank Racing's identical Acura ARX-05, the WTR machine lapping in1min30.058s to beat Olivier Pla by 0.346s.
Kevin Magnussen emerged fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.R drivers, claiming third for Chip Ganassi Racing with Pipo Derani’s Action Express Racing Cadillac set to start fourth.
After charging to victory last weekend, Mazda will only start fifth as Harry Tincknell ran wide and snagged an advertising sign at Turn 8, which meant he was unable to improve his time as the track conditions improved.
PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Ben Keating stole LMP2 pole with a brilliant run to the checkered flag with a lap 0.423s quicker than Steven Thomas’ best in the WIN Autosport car.
Theodor Olsen spun away a chance to start on the front row of the six-car LMP3 pack and brought out a red flag with two minutes remaining.
#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 Acura DPi: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
By then, Matteo Llarena in the Performance Tech Motorsports had proven the class of the field, 0.735s ahead of Jon Bennett’s CORE autosport machine and a full second clear of Jarett Andretti's Andretti Autosport machine.
With BMW only contesting the four endurance races, only three cars will contest the GTLM class this weekend.
Jordan Taylor put the #3 Corvette on pole for the second straight week, with 0.224s margin over team-mate Nick Tandy, with the WeatherTech Porsche of Matt Campbell third.
Meanwhile in GTD, Madison Snow’s Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan topped the times that decide the grid with a 1min59.380s lap, 0.440s faster than Frankie Montecalvo’s best effort in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F.
Then the Pros came out to decide qualifying points, and Bill Auberlen's Turner Motorsport BMW went to the top of the speed charts with his first flyer, only to tangle with the Compass Acura driven by Mario Farnbacher and spin off.
Auberlen would end up second behind Jack Hawksworth's #14 VSR Lexus, with Daniel Morad third fastest the Alegra Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3.
Results
| Cla | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ricky Taylor  Filipe Albuquerque | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'30.058 | |
| 2 | Dane Cameron  Olivier Pla | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'30.404 | 0.346 |
| 4 |  Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'30.684 | 0.626 |
| 5 |  Oliver Jarvis Harry Tincknell | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'30.947 | 0.889 |
| 6 | Tristan Vautier Loic Duval | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'31.094 | 1.036 |
| 7 | Ben Keating  Mikkel Jensen | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'34.969 | 4.911 |
| 8 | Thomas Steven Tristan Nunez | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'35.392 | 5.334 |
| 9 |  John Farano Gabriel Aubry | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'39.644 | 9.586 |
| 10 |  Rasmus Lindh  Mateo Llarena | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'42.633 | 12.575 |
| 11 | Jon Bennett Colin Braun | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'43.368 | 13.310 |
| 12 | Jarett Andretti Oliver Askew | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'43.608 | 13.550 |
| 13 |  Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'43.821 | 13.763 |
| 14 | Tommy Milner Nick Tandy | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'44.045 | 13.987 |
| 15 | Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'44.650 | 14.592 |
| 16 | Theodor Olsen Dominic Cicero | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'49.677 | 19.619 |
| 17 | Jim Cox Dylan Murry | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'50.230 | 20.172 |
| 18 | Cooper MacNeil  Matt Campbell | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'57.420 | 27.362 |
| 19 | Bryan Sellers Madison Snow | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'59.380 | 29.322 |
| 20 | Frankie Montecalvo Zach Veach | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'59.820 | 29.762 |
| 21 | Richard Heistand Jeff Westphal | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 2'00.946 | 30.888 |
| 22 | Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'01.146 | 31.088 |
| 23 | Jeff Kingsley  Mario Farnbacher | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'01.146 | 31.088 |
| 24 | Roman De Angelis Ross Gunn | GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 2'01.198 | 31.140 |
| 25 | Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 2'01.201 | 31.143 |
| 26 | Aaron Telitz Jack Hawksworth | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'01.396 | 31.338 |
| 27 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 2'01.894 | 31.836 |
| 28 | Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'02.907 | 32.849 |
| 29 | Guy Cosmo Shane Lewis | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 2'04.610 | 34.552 |
| 30 | Mikhail Goikhberg Franck Perera | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | ||
| View full results | |||||
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