Practice runs and qualifying for the Sahlen's Six Hours of Watkins Glen, Round 7 of the GRAND-AM race series, was held on Saturday the 29th, with the #70 SpeedSource Mazda6 SKYACTIV-D Racing entry (Sylvain Tremblay, Tom Long, Andrew Carbonell) taking pole position in the GX class. The #00 VISIT FLORIDA Mazda6 will start third in its class.

The weather was fine this morning, with clear blue skies. The first practice run of the day started in dry conditions. The two Mazda 6s found their rhythm and began accumulating laps. The #00 VISIT FLORIDA had planned to rotate through drivers Joel Miller, Tristan Nunez, and Terada-san in the 40-minute session if everything went well. However, while Nunez was driving, the water temperature rose suddenly, so to be on the safe side, he stopped at the side of the track. He ended up being towed back to the pit. The car was stopped before the problem could affect the engine itself, so there was no damage to the cylinders etc., but the settings for the cooling system had to be revised. Terada-san was unable to drive during this period, so it was decided that he would drive in the 15-minute official qualifying session that started about 90 minutes later. The veteran looked a bit tense, as this was his first qualifying attack in some time. However, while Terada-san was warming up his tires, it suddenly began to rain, and there was a state of confusion on track, with the DPs at the top of the list. This left Terada unable to make the attack he had wanted to, and ended up with frustrating results. On the other hand, Sylvain Tremblay, who is familiar with the #70 Mazda 6, handled the attack and took pole position for the GX class with a time that edged in on the GT drivers.

Terada commented, “I am not yet familiar with this track, and my driver's seat was still being adjusted, so it was difficult for me to maintain my field of vision. On top of that, when it's raining like it was, you have no choice but to give up on the attack. I think I will be the starting driver for tomorrow's race. The cars drive at high speed here, and the track is narrow, so I want to do my best to avoid contact with the faster cars at the start, and make may way through the opening stages safely.”