Tom Blomqvist Tops Both Watkins Glen WeatherTech Practices

Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist was fastest overall in both IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice sessions at Watkins Glen.  His lap at 136.636 mph towards the end of Practice No. 2 Saturday morning (June 25) is an unofficial track record.

Practice No. 1

Blomqvist was fastest in the opening practice session Friday afternoon (June 24) with a lap at 134.185 mph.  The time was set 35 minutes into the 90-minute session.

Blomqvist’s lap was .322 seconds faster than Chip Ganassi Racing’s Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Cadillac.  Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor was third in his Acura, followed by Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani.  Earl Bamber was fifth in the second Ganassi Cadillac.

LMP2 was topped by PR1 Mathaisen Motorsports’ Mikkel Jensen with a lap at 132.140 mph, good for seventh overall.  Jensen’s lap was more than four-tenths of a second faster than Tower Motorsport’s Louis Deletraz.  Jonathan Bomarito in the second PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson was third fastest, followed by High Class Racing’s Fabio Scherer.  Juan Pablo Montoya in the DragonSpeed entry was fifth.

CORE autosport’s Colin Braun was fastest in LMP3 with a lap at 122.659 mph, good for 14th overall.  Braun’s lap was seven-tenths of a second faster than Jr III Racing’s Garret Grist.  MLT Motorsports’ Dakota Dickerson was third fastest. FASTMD Racing’s Nico Varrone was fourth fastest, despite competing in a class that teammate James Vance described to Frontstretch Friday as stacked.  Andretti Autosport’s Gabby Chaves rounded out the top five.

While the team’s pace was decent, not all was well for MLT Motorsports.  With six minutes remaining in the session, Dickerson spun in turn 7 and made contact with the tire barrier.  This brought out a red flag that ended the session early.  A cursory look didn’t reveal too much damage to the team’s Ligier JS P320-Nissan after it was dropped off by the tow truck.

In the GT classes, it was the GTD teams that were fastest on the day.  At the end of the 90-minute session, Team Korthoff Motorsports’ Dirk Mueller was fastest with a lap at 115.257 mph, good for 26th overall.  Mueller’s lap was three-hundredths of a second faster than the Aston Martin of Magnus Racing’s Andy Lally, who only did eight laps in the session.

VasserSullivan’s No. 12 Lexus for Frankie Montecalvo was third fastest, then the AF Corse Ferrari of Toni Vilander.  Turner…