(Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — The Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian No. 60 car paced opening practice in the WeatherTech Championship ahead of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
Colin Braun, in his first season with Meyer Shank, set the quick time of 1:33:563, over a second quicker than the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport car. He started the practice session in the car and turned 11 laps in the dry before rain set in. Braun made several laps in the wet before turning it over to co-driver Tom Blomqvist in the second half of the session.
Meyer Shank is looking to turn its season around after a controversial result in Daytona. The team won the Rolex 24 but got penalized 200 points and fined $50,000 for race data manipulation. The team has finished outside the top five in GTP in the three races since.
Last season, Meyer Shank was the fastest in each of the two practice sessions and won the pole award with Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis. The team led most of the race before losing in a late shootout to Wayne Taylor Racing after a thunderstorm.
The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport car was third quickest overall in Practice 1 and the two Cadillac Racing cars were fourth and fifth respectively. The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing car lacked pace and was eighth in GTP and 11th overall, while the No. 5 JDC Miller Motorsport car was ninth in GTP and 15th overall.
The No. 11 TDS Racing car set the fastest time in LMP2 at 1:36:066 and the No. 30 Jr lll Racing car set the fastest time in LMP3. The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing car led GTD practice while the No. 62 Risi Competizione car led in GTD Pro.
The first practice had just one significant incident. With about 35 minutes remaining, the No. 35 TDS Racing LMP2 car driven by John Falb crashed in Turn 6 and suffered heavy front-end damage. The car was brought back to the paddock by a wrecker and officials took time to repair the tire wall. The crash halted practice for about 12 minutes.
TDS Racing works on repairing its No. 35 car after a crash at Watkins Glen. (Photo: Nathan Solomon | The Podium Finish)
The No. 42 NTE Sport LLC GTD car spun out entering Turn 11 with just 10 seconds remaining in practice and lost its hood.
The WeatherTech Championship returns to the track Saturday at 8 a.m. ET for Practice 2. The series will qualify later in the day at 1:20 p.m. ET. Four other series, including the Michelin Pilot Challenge, will have races.
