WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Picking up where they’ve been for so much of the season, the Cadillac Whelen team again led the way in Friday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship opening 90-minute practice for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at the iconic Watkins Glen International road course.
Jack Aitken posted a fast lap of 1 minute, 33.846 seconds (130.871 mph) in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R around the 3.4-mile, 11-turn track in scenic upstate New York.
Aitken, the current Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) championship leader, was 0.315 of a second faster than last year’s Motul Pole Award winner, Renger van der Zande, in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06, to pace the field.
Tom Blomqvist was third fastest in the defending race-winning No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 in the 11-car GTP field. The 11 GTP cars are part of a 54-car field as part of the third IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup round of the season.
“I think Action Express and the Whelen Cadillac guys, we have a bit of a reputation that we want to get out on track first thing and have a good first couple of steps,” said Aitken, who set the fast time only three laps into the hour and a half opening session.
“It helps when you’re first in pit lane, so you can get out in front of the queue and we just get down to business as quick as we can. It’s not because we want to have headline time; it’s more that we just try to get down to work as quickly as possible. I think the other guys may ease into it a bit more, but we’re quite happy. We’re ready. We’re here. The car’s prepped. The drivers are ready, so why not just get on it quick?’’
“It was just a pretty smooth session and we’re gonna have a busy day tomorrow, so we’ll get our homework done tonight, so we’re ready for it.”
Aitken and co-drivers Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti are hoping to extend the Cadillac Whelen team’s modern-day GTP class record seven consecutive podium finishes run that goes back to the last two races of the 2025 season.
Dane Cameron led the 11-car Le Mans Prototype 2 class. His fast lap of 1 minute, 35.385 seconds (128.759 mph) came in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07 he shares with PJ Hyett and Jonny Edgar. Cameron’s best lap was 0.509 of a second faster than Tom Dillmann in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07.
Edgar enters Watkins Glen off an LMGT3 class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while Hyett and Cameron – last year’s IMSA LMP2 champions – finished third in the LMP2 Pro/Am class at Le Mans in an AO by TF entry.
Valentin Hasse Clot was fastest both in the 20-car Grand Touring Daytona class and among all GT cars, posting a lap of 1 minute, 44.860 seconds (117.125 mph) in the No. 068 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. This is a new team name, car number and lineup debuting this weekend; Hasse Clot shares the No. 068 car with Trenton Estep and Marius Fossard.
Fellow Aston Martin runners Magnus Racing clocked in second, with Spencer Pumpelly posting the No. 44 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo’s best time. Pumpelly shares the car with John Potter and Mario Farnbacher. This driver lineup has two milestones ahead of them Sunday: Pumpelly is poised to start his 250th top-level IMSA series event with Farnbacher due to start his 100th.
Ford Racing led the always-competitive 12-car Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class with Christopher Mies turning in a lap of 1 minute, 46.095 seconds (115.761 mph) in the No. 65 Ford Racing Ford Mustang GT3 and was a very slight 0.048 of a second faster than Max Esterson in RLL Team McLaren’s No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO.
Mies shares his No. 65 Ford with Frederic Vervisch while young drivers Esterson and Nikita Johnson share the RLL McLaren.
The No. 65 car was the only one of the top four in GTD PRO points in the top six, with the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO seventh and two Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs eighth (No. 3) and 11th (No. 4). That said, GTD PRO championship leader Tommy Milner in the No. 4 car was not overly concerned.
“Watkins Glen always requires a little bit of building up to it, maybe more so than other tracks,” explained Milner, who shares the No. 4 Corvette with Nicky Catsburg. “There are some balance things that we can work on and some other things, as well. I’m not too concerned right now. It’s the first practice session. A qualifying simulation wasn’t in our plan for this session, so we’ll save that for tomorrow.”
