Yahoo Autos MSR Acura fastest at Watkins Glen before 6 Hour practice deluge
Rain began to fall 30 minutes into the first practice session for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, becoming both a blessing and a curse. While it kept many teams from setting a truly representative dry time, it also allowed IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams a good chance to prepare for the predicted rain on race day.
“The Acura GTP car has been really fast in the dry conditions, but we haven’t had a chance to learn it very much in the rain,” said Colin Braun, watching the weather before the session. “So that’s a bit of an unknown, I think, for us. But I’m really excited to get to drive it in the rain. I think all the tools, all the options, all the work these guys have been doing that to make it a good car in the dry will also make it a good car in the rain.”
Braun, who set the quick time in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 during the dry part of the session, and the rest of the drivers had plenty of opportunity to figure out their cars in the rain, as the track was well and truly soaked by the end of the session, slowing lap times by some 20s.
With only half an hour of dry running in the 90-minute session, there was a big spread of times in many of the classes. Braun’s 1m33.563s was 1.229s better than Felipe Nasr, second quick in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963. Nasr, in turn, edged teammate Nick Tandy in the No. 6 PPM 963 by 0.071s. As the rain began to let off toward the end of the session, Brauns’ teammate Tom Blomqvist was consistently quickest, getting down to a 1m48s lap; Augusto Farfus (No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8) and Pipo Derani (No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R) both posted 1m49s laps.
