JUNE 26, 2026
Cameron Tops LMP2; Hasse Clot Leads GTD with Mies atop GTD PRO
By Holly Cain and Tony DiZinno
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 (N.Y.) 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 (LMP2) 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.
“It’s one of the driver’s favorite places to go to, Watkins Glen,” Cameron said in advance of the weekend on an IMSA-hosted media availability.
“The thing that we that we love about IMSA is the way the traffic really can shake things up. Going through GT cars and things like that can always blow the race wide open.
“In LMP2, the aggression level is quite high. The battles are pretty aggressive. We had a couple of fun ones in Le Mans and throughout the course of last year and start of this year. We’re excited for what’s ahead and really to get here into the meat of the calendar for LMP2 to see if we can kind of get our year turned around.”