Aitken stays ahead in second Glen 6 Hour practice

Jack Aitken was once again the quickest driver in practice for the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen, topping the timesheets in Practice 2 Saturday morning.

Aitken, in the red No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R, set the best time of the weekend so far at 1m33.865s in the final minutes of Saturday's 90-minute practice session. He dropped Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac down to second place in a V-Series.R 1-2. Taylor's best lap of 1m33.996s stood as the top time for most of the session.

Behind the two leading Cadillacs were the two Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06es; Colin Braun in the No. 60 car was the quicker of the two, ahead of the No. 93 of Detroit winner Renger van der Zande. Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 rounded out the top five from the GTP class.

The quickest of the Porsche 963s wasn't either of the two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s – rather, it was the black and gold No. 5 Proton Competition 963 of Nico Varrone, who timed in seventh.

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Almost simultaneously, newcomer AJ Muss in the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari spun and stopped after contact with one of the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports cars.

Damage to the left-front suspension of the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari nearly caused a scare for Paul-Loup Chatin and Gar Robinson at the exit of the Bus Stop; the two LMP2 cars made light side-by-side contact, but no more than that.

And with 25 minutes left, the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA stopped at turn 10 to bring out the second red flag of the session – not how the Le Mans Pro/Am class winners hoped to start the day before qualifying this afternoon.

When the checkered flag came out, the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA 07 set the fastest time in LMP2, courtesy of the team's new "designated Silver," Portuguese IMSA newcomer Manuel Espirito Santo, who set a 1m35.967s.

Mikkel Jensen in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA was five hundredths of a second behind Espirito Santo's best, good for second, ahead of the No. 8 Tower Motorsports and No. 22 United Autosports USA cars.

Pfaff Motorsports' red plaid No. 9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 was the fastest car in GTD PRO for the second session in a row. This time, the car's best time of 1m45.741s was set by super-sub Sandy Mitchell, who replaces Marco Mapelli this weekend.

It was an Italian 1-2 with the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa in second, behind them was Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R, and Dan Harper in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

But once again, the pace-setter in GTD was quicker – this time, Alec Udell led the class in his No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette, with a 1m45.258s.

The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, and No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin completed the top four from GTD.

UP NEXT: Qualifying begins at 2:20 PM ET and will stream live in the United States on Peacock, and internationally on YouTube and IMSA.TV.

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