Tom Blomqvist Wins Sahlen’s Six Hours At The Glen Pole

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist continued his stranglehold on the speed charts Saturday (June 25) by setting a new track record at 136.638 mph to win the pole for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen.

Blomqvist took the pole with what was really his second-best lap.  He had set a personal best in the first sector and the quickest of all in sector two on his previous lap, only to be held up in the last couple of turns by Era Motorsport’s Dwight Merriman.

Ultimately, Blomqvist’s lap was .164 seconds quicker than Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque.  Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber will start on the second row, while Action Express Racing’s Olivier Pla.

In LMP2, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Ben Keating is typically the strongest qualifier in the class.  This remained true on Saturday, but he had to fight for it.

Keating turned in a lap at 130.310 mph to put himself on top.  Teammate Steven Thomas challenged late in the session and set a lap just one-thousandth of a second slower over 3.4 miles.

High Class Racing’s Dennis Andersen will start third, but he was more than 1.5 seconds back.  Racing Team Nederland’s Frits van Eerd starts fourth, while Tower Motorsport’s John Farano was fifth.

MLT Motorsports’ Josh Sarchet led early in LMP3 qualifying in his Ligier JS P320-Nissan, but FASTMD Racing’s Nico Varrone took the top spot with a lap at 122.366 mph.

Shortly afterwards, Andretti Autosport’s Jarett Andretti hit the wall exiting turn 11.  He was able to continue down the track, but his left rear tire went down, triggering a spin in turn 1.

Andretti tried to pull off, but could not get far enough off of the racing surface to not trigger a red flag.  As a result, Andretti lost his two best laps.  At the time, Andretti was third in class.  He’ll start in .

The session did not resume after the red flag.  As a result, Varrone will start from the class pole.  He ended up more than a half-second ahead of Sarchet.  CORE autosport’s Jon Bennett will start third, then Performance Tech Motorsports’ Dan Goldburg and Riley Motorsports’ Gar Robinson.

There was also a penalty given to Sean Creech Motorsports’ Dr. Lance Willsey for illegal touching and leaving the car early.  Both are illegal in IMSA qualifying sessions.  As a result, the team loses all their times and points from the session.

GTD Pro qualifying at first was much like…