Watkins Glen 240 IMSA: Taylor takes pole in Acura 1-2

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