In the first GT Le Mans battle of the marques at the famed Watkins Glen International, BMW took the early advantage in today’s single practice session at the former home of the US Formula 1 Grand Prix.

BMW tested for two days at the upstate New York venue in May and Watkins Glen rookie Andy Priaulx set the pace – stopping the clocks at 1:45.652 – recording the time on the final lap of practice.

John Edwards was just adrift – only 0.046 of a second behind Priaulx.

Porsche’s Nick Tandy was third fastest – celebrating the birth of his first child – a baby girl. Marc Goosens was fourth fastest for SRT Motorsports – the cars now branded as Dodge Vipers and wearing the retro red and white livery previously seen during the Dodge Viper ALMS championship years from the turn of the millennium.

In the Prototype ranks, the Le Mans-style P2 cars took the early advantage over the Daytona Prototypes. Ryan Dalziel set the pace for Extreme Speed Motorsports, recording a stunning lap .5 of a second faster than the Oak Racing entry of second generation racer, Alex Brundle.

Teams will be back on track tomorrow at 9:10am for the next practice session. Practice #3 is at 2:45pm with qualifying kicking off at 3:55pm.

Top three in class (overall in parentheses):

(1) #1-P Ryan Dalziel (HPD ARX-03b) 1:39.918
(2) #42-P Alex Brundle (Morgan Nissan) 1:40.457 (0.539-)
(3) #90-P Michael Valiante (Corvette DP) 1:40.620 (0.702-)

(10) #25-PC Tom Kimber-Smith (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:42.555
(12) #54-PC Colin Braun (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:43.159 (0.604-)
(13) #8-PC Renger van der Zande (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:43.393 (0.838-)

(22) #55-GTLM Andy Priaulx (BMW Z4 GTE) 1:45.652 (
23) #56-GTLM John Edwards (BMW Z4 GTE) 1:45.698 (0.046-)
(24) #911-GTLM Nick Tandy (Porsche 911 RSR) 1:45.727 (0.075-)

(35) #22-GTD Leh Keen (Porsche 911 GT America) 1:50.322
(36) #555-GTD Townsend Bell (Ferrari F458 Italia) 1:50.621 (0.299-)
(37) #58-GTD Jan Heylen (Porsche 911 GT America) 1:50.910 (0.588-)