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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.

Pole sitter #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 Acura DPi: Ricky Taylor

Pole sitter #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 Acura DPi: Ricky Taylor

Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

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

#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 United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
DPi Acura DPi 1'30.058  
2 United States Dane Cameron
France Olivier Pla
DPi Acura DPi 1'30.404 0.346
4 Brazil Felipe Nasr
Brazil Pipo Derani
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'30.684 0.626
5 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
DPi Mazda DPi 1'30.947 0.889
6 France Tristan Vautier
France Loic Duval
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'31.094 1.036
7 United States Ben Keating
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'34.969 4.911
8 United States Thomas Steven
United States Tristan Nunez
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'35.392 5.334
9 Canada John Farano
France Gabriel Aubry
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'39.644 9.586
10 Sweden Rasmus Lindh
Guatemala Mateo Llarena
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'42.633 12.575
11 United States Jon Bennett
United States Colin Braun
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'43.368 13.310
12 United States Jarett Andretti
United States Oliver Askew
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'43.608 13.550
13 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'43.821 13.763
14 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'44.045 13.987
15 United States Gar Robinson
Brazil 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 United States Jim Cox
United States Dylan Murry
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'50.230 20.172
18 United States Cooper MacNeil
Australia Matt Campbell
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'57.420 27.362
19 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'59.380 29.322
20 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Zach Veach
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'59.820 29.762
21 United States Richard Heistand
United States Jeff Westphal
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 2'00.946 30.888
22 United States Till Bechtolsheimer
United States Marc Miller
GTD Acura NSX GT3 2'01.146 31.088
23 Jeff Kingsley
Germany Mario Farnbacher
GTD Acura NSX GT3 2'01.146 31.088
24 Canada Roman De Angelis
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 2'01.198 31.140
25 United States Michael de Quesada
Canada Daniel Morad
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 2'01.201 31.143
26 United States Aaron Telitz
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 2'01.396 31.338
27 United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
GTD BMW M6 GT3 2'01.894 31.836
28 United States Rob Ferriol
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 2'02.907 32.849
29 United States Guy Cosmo
United States Shane Lewis
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 2'04.610 34.552
30 Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
France Franck Perera
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3    

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