A rapidly drying Watkins Glen International circuit provided an entertaining battle for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class pole Saturday in qualifying for the 6 Hours of The Glen, with BMW, Ford and Porsche swapping the top spot eight times over the final five minutes of the 15-minute session.

In the end, it was the No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Joey Hand who crossed the stripe with the fastest time of 1 minute, 42.507 seconds on the session’s final lap. The pole-winning lap came just seconds after Alexander Sims put down what eventually became the second fastest lap of the session, 1:42.813, in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW M6.

“I love qualifying here,” said Hand, who picked up his 10th career IMSA pole. “Especially since they paved it, it’s super fun to drive. You’ve got to throw down; hang on and throw down. I was able to get just a full lap to finish and got it by just a little bit of a chunk.

“I know it doesn’t totally matter to start on the pole for a six-hour race, but the race competition is always so strong. You want to stay away from the messy stuff in the first couple of hours so that you’re ready when the dog fight starts and you’ve got to go to the finish.”

Ford and BMW also will make up the second row for tomorrow’s race. Martin Tomczyk qualified third after a lap of 1:42.881 in BMW Team RLL’s No. 24 BMW M6, just 0.003 seconds ahead of Richard Westbrook in the No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, 1:42.884. Patrick Pilet, who led multiple times throughout the session, rounded out the top-five with a lap of 1:43.140 in Porsche GT Team’s No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR.

The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is Round 3 of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. The No. 911 Porsche GT Team and No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT enter the race tied for the points lead in the four-race endurance competition following the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.

Lally Scores Acura’s First TOTAL Pole Award At Home Track

One race after scoring its first win in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition, Acura picked up its first TOTAL Pole Award in IMSA competition Saturday in qualifying for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Andy Lally lapped the 3.4-mile circuit in 1 minute, 46.051 seconds, putting the No. 93 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 he co-drives with Katherine Legge to the top of the class charts just before a red flag shortened the 15-minute session by two minutes. A native to Long Island, New York, Lally considers Watkins Glen his home track and this weekend sports a paint scheme of the Statue of Liberty in honor of the Independence Day weekend.

It was Lally’s second career pole at Watkins Glen, but his first in WeatherTech Championship competition.

"It’s been quite a nice momentum roll we’ve been on after a hard fought victory,” said Lally, who is coming off a win at Detroit alongside Legge, the first win for the Acura NSX GT3. “We had a great strategy call in Detroit, so to follow our first win for the NSX with a pole is really special. It shows how meticulous and nonstop the Michael Shank Racing guys are. We’re working on every single bolt and finding every single bit of performance we can get our hands on."

Lawson Aschenbach qualified second in Stevenson Motorsports’ No. 57 Audi R8 LMS with a lap of 1:46.271, with Jack Hawksworth third in the No. 15 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3.

Hawksworth, on a hot lap with two minutes remaining in the session spun coming out of Turn 9 and suffered minor rear-end damage. His teammate Sage Karam wasn’t as fortunate, however, losing control of the No. 14 Lexus seconds later in the same corner and made hard contact with the barrier. The incident brought out the red flag and an early end to the session.

The 6 Hours of The Glen can be seen live tomorrow beginning at 10 a.m. on FS1.

Sebastian Landy (Great Falls, Va.) is ready for rounds seven and eight of the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama doubleheader at Watkins Glen International Raceway, June 30-July 1.

Landy is currently fifth in the driver points standings driving the Alex Job Racing prepared No.49 Porsche 911 GT. Landy has experience at the 3.4-mile, 11-turn historic racing circuit located in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.

"I've raced at The Glen a few times, most recently last year, when I won one of the two races there in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Gold class," Landy said. "It's a beautiful and technical track, and one of the most historically important tracks in the U.S., so it's always a great experience to race at The Glen."

Landy knows the set-up of his Porsche 911 needs to be just right.

"Watkins Glen has a number of long sweeping corners that put a lot of load onto the tires. Finding a set-up that maximizes grip for the entire race will be key, as the nature of this circuit often lends itself to understeer and tire wear."

The team will have young Landy focusing on his qualifying effort this weekend.

"I need to improve on our efforts in qualifying. At COTA we showed equal pace with the leaders in both races, but because of my qualifying positions I wasn't able to fully capitalize on that pace. Heading into this weekend I feel that we're in the best position we have been in yet this season to get a good result, and as long as we execute correctly and keep our mistakes to a minimum we should be able to fight for a podium."

"We noticed over the past few races that when the green flag drops on the race Sebastian is as fast as the drivers who are winning," Alex Job, team owner said. "We are going to pay particular attention to the set-up and approach we have to qualifying this weekend at The Glen."

It’s been an eventful week for Tequila Patrón ESM and driver Pipo Derani.

On Monday morning, the team announced that Derani would replace Patrón Spirits International President and CEO Ed Brown as driver of its No. 22 Nissan DPi race car for the remainder of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. The plans called for Brown to race in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Sunday and then retire from Prototype competition.

Plans changed Thursday morning, when the team announced that – due to unexpected back surgery – Brown would not compete this weekend after all, leaving regular driver Johannes van Overbeek and Brazilian endurance race teammate Bruno Senna to contest the six hours on their own in the No. 22 machine.

On Friday, Derani posted the quickest time in practice aboard the team’s No. 2 Nissan DPi he is sharing this weekend with its regular drivers, Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel. Today, Derani put the car on the pole position for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, beating Olivier Pla in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier LM P2 car by a scant 0.162 seconds.

The Brazilian posted a best time of 1 minute, 34.405 seconds (129.6 mph) in the 15-minute session to earn the first TOTAL Pole Award of his WeatherTech Championship career. It also was the first pole for the Nissan DPi program, which debuted in January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.

“It’s special to give Ed (Brown) and the whole team a pole position after all the hard work at the beginning of the year,” Derani said. “Not just for us the drivers, but for all the mechanics here and at the shop back at home.

“I think as we’ve seen today, we’re not the only ones who were quick, and we were right up there with Olivier. Look at how close the DPis are to the P2s here. Each car has its strength and weaknesses. It might be in favor of one or another depending on where you are on the track so I think it’ll be a tough race for us.”

Pla will roll off from second on the class grid in the car he shares with Jose Gutierrez following a best qualifying lap of 1:34.567 (129.4 mph). The second row will include a pair of Cadillac DPis, with Christian Fittipaldi in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R starting third at 1:35.306 (128.4 mph) and points leader Ricky Taylor qualifying fourth at 1:35.496 (128.1 mph) in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Ricky Taylor and his brother, Jordan, are going for their sixth consecutive victory in the WeatherTech Championship during tomorrow’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

The race will be televised live on FS1 beginning at 10 a.m. ET, with continuing coverage on FS2 starting at 1 p.m. The FOX Sports GO app will carry the race from start to finish with FS1 authentication.

Live streaming of in-car cameras and IMSA Radio audio coverage is available on IMSA.com for U.S. viewers, with a complete live stream available for international audiences. IMSA Radio also is available on SiriusXM Radio and RadioLeMans.com.

French, Performance Tech Take Fourth Pole of Prototype Challenge Season

Driver James French and the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports team earned their fourth pole in five qualifying sessions this season in Prototype Challenge (PC) class qualifying. It was the eighth pole of French’s career and the eighth also for the team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

French logged a best lap of 1 minute, 40.049 seconds (122.3 mph) to secure the top starting position. He’ll be joined in Sunday’s race by co-drivers Pato O’Ward and Kyle Masson as the team looks to continue its 2017 undefeated record in Sunday’s race.

“Definitely, the goal is another win,” French said. “We started out practice with a bit of a nervous car. It was a little more ‘steery’ than we wanted and Pato had a bit of an incident yesterday. The team put what they could into the car overnight, so we went a little more conservative on the setup. It makes it a little easy on us get through traffic tomorrow and play it a little safer knowing we need to survive for six hours.”

If there’s one driver lineup bringing momentum into this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, it’s that of the No. 43 Keating Motorsports Riley MK30 Gibson.

The all-IMSA trio of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Ricky Taylor will be piloting the only Multimatic/Riley chassis in this weekend’s twice around the clock event, competing alongside 24 other competitors in the LM P2 class.

The triple-threat lineup was announced back in March, but nobody could have imagined the success the three drivers would bring into June.

Keating and Bleekemolen, co-drivers of the No. 33 Riley Motorsports-Team AMG Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, sit atop the GT Daytona (GTD) class standings with two victories in five races, one of which came at another endurance classic, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.

Co-driver Ricky Taylor is on a historic streak of his own in IMSA with younger brother Jordan, who also will be competing on Saturday with Corvette Racing in the GTE Pro class. The Taylors are undefeated in WeatherTech Championship Prototype competition this year, which includes a 24-hour endurance race victory in 2017— the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.

“I know him a little bit from previous years, but I’ve gotten to know him better and better,” Bleekemolen said of his new teammate Taylor. “He’s a great guy obviously and, at the moment, on top of his game. He has a lot of experience with the new LMP cars so that’s really helpful and he’s also a great team player. He’s not there to just try and set the best lap by himself, but he’s looking at the overall picture, which is I think very important for Le Mans.”

Heading into Le Mans, though, the drivers admit the momentum can only go so far.

“It’s completely different over there,” Keating explained. “It’s a different car, it’s a different series, it’s different competitors. Of the five races that have happened so far this year, obviously, Ricky has won all five and we’ve won two, so I definitely feel like there has to be a certain amount of momentum whether it’s success or luck or confidence. I feel like our driver lineup has a lot going for it and I’m really excited about that. As far as how things go over at Le Mans, it’s yet to be seen.”

Taylor, who will be making his fourth start at Le Mans, agrees.

“I believe in momentum and we’ve had a ton of momentum this year on the IMSA side, but Le Mans is such an outlier from anything else around the world,” Taylor said. “It’s not like Daytona. It’s really on its own between how big the track is, the different conditions, and all the top teams coming together to race there so it’s really difficult.”

Keating and Taylor are still seeking their first win at the historic circuit. Bleekemolen, who won at Le Mans in 2008 in the same class he’ll be racing in on Saturday, is more than ready to contribute for his Keating Motorsports teammates.

“It would mean a lot,” Bleekemolen said. “We’ve been together for four years now and we’ve been having a good time having won quite a few races, but we’re still looking for a win at Le Mans. I haven’t been this long with any team in the past before, so we have a really strong connection and we’re having a lot of fun. It would be amazing to score a podium or even a win at Le Mans.”