The fresh pavement at Road America may prove to be quite a challenge for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, but in qualifying it was producing record laps in most classes. With most of the day having been somewhat overcast until qualifying, track temperatures were kept a bit lower than they might have been, and it showed in ultimate speed.
Pipo Derani, with both Cadillacs having been at the top in the practice sessions, might have been an easy pick to score the pole position, and he delivered with a 1m47.730s in the Action Express Racing V-Series.R. That time, a 135.27mph average around the 4.048-mile circuit, was nearly a second better than the old DPi lap record set by Dane Cameron in an Acura in 2019, the first time the GTPs have been quicker than their predecessors all season. It also brought critical points for Derani and Alexander Sims as they attempt to maintain their championship lead.
“With the new tarmac, it’s very important to be out front not only because it will be hard to overtake GTs on the outside, being so slippery. Also, in the moment that we are in the championship, to be starting out front has a big impact, I would say,” Derani explained. “Back when I won the championship in 2021, it was decided on the minimum, like one or two, three points. Being able to take these extra points home could mean something at the end of the championship.”
Derani set the quick time, then brought the Cadillac into the pits to put on a new set of tires to scrub for the race while waiting to see if Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac could better his time. Not only did Bourdais fall 0.3s short at 1m48.036s, the Cadillac front-row party was spoiled by Matt Campbell in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 who posted a 1m47.798s lap — pace not shown by any of the Porsches previously during the weekend, something Derani says isn’t too surprising to him.
“I think during practice there’s so many different programs that you do with your own team that you don’t really necessarily know each one’s true pace until qualifying comes. What we do know is that the GTP class has been very close and so you would never discard anyone before the checkered flag in qualifying. Not surprised. I think it’s good for the championship that everyone is very close. It’s good for the fans, and it puts an extra pressure on the team to execute races and execute practices and qualifying at a very high level, because you know that anything can can make a difference in the end.”
Filipe Albuquerque qualified fourth with a 1m48.156s lap in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 to start on the outside of the second row alongside Bourdais. Connor De Phillippi will start the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 on the inside of the third row, with Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura alongside.
George Kurtz, who might have been racing elsewhere were he not leading the LMP2 championship with Ben Hanley, qualified the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA on the LMP2 pole with a 1m53.621s lap — more than half a second better than Rodrigo Sales in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA.
Steven Thomas qualified the No. 11 TDS Racing entry third at 1m54.296s, with Ben Keating putting the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA on the outside of row two.
Nico Pino, who had a scary moment launching off the end of the curb at the exit of Turn 1 with all four wheels in the air, still managed to claim the LMP3 pole. Pino, a late substitution for Lance Willsey in the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier, turned a record 1m57.930s lap before he took flight to claim the pole by nearly a second. Bijoy Garg, making his first start in WeatherTech Championship, qualified second in the No. 29 Jr III Racing Ligier. Garg was supposed to partnering with Linus Lundqvist for his debut, but with Lundqvist getting the call-up from Meyer Shank Racing to drive their IndyCar in Nashville, he is instead driving with Colin Noble. Gar Robinson qualified the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier third with a 1m58.224s.
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“This is the first time for me in Road America. I just got here for P1,” said Pino. “It was a lot of learning. We struggled a little bit through the practice sessions so we had to make big changes for qualifying, which obviously worked out. Then tried to explore the limits a little bit through the session, of course having some airtime at one point. Yeah, pretty happy with pole. It’s…a good position for tomorrow’s race, so we’ll now analyze and see how we can improve on being in great position for tomorrow.”
The GTD records were obliterated as well, with Alex Riberas beating the previous records by more than 2s in taking the pole for GTD PRO as Heart of Racing looks to repeat its double victory from Lime Rock. Riberas’s 2m02.918s (118.56mph) in the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was a scant 0.057s better than Daniel Juncadella in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG. Jordan Taylor qualified third in GTD PRO in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R with a 2m03.143s lap.
“A great day for Heart of Racing overall,” said Riberas. “It’s been a tough year so far. A lot of things that went against our way in terms of strategy, some mistakes, some things that didn’t quite work for our car, and we had to overcome those. But at the end of the day, momentum plays a massive role in terms of performance and in terms of getting the outcome, so I feel like we have that momentum right now…after the win at Lime Rock. The guys are doing a phenomenal job getting the car ready after the big crash that Ross [Gunn] had at Mosport. It just feels very special to be able to give them back a reward for all of those super long hours of work that they had to endure.”
Madison Snow will start the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 on the outside of the second row as he scored his first GTD pole since the qualifying format was opened up to either driver. His 2m03.291s lap reset the GTD record held by Ben Keating since 2019.
“It’s a tight field, a lot of cars and if you have to work your way up to the pack, it’s definitely a challenge. We’ve been in a tight competition with the Heart of Racing car, so every little point that you can get matters and the points add up at the end of the year.”
Snow’s closest pursuer in qualifying, Brendan Iribe in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3, will start directly behind the BMW, with Jack Hawksworth having qualified the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 fourth in GTD PRO and fifth overall. Iribe was only 0.091s off Snow’s best lap. Klaus Bachler put the GTD PRO No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R seventh overall to provide more separation to the third-place GTD car, Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
Mike Skeen was fourth in GTD in the No. 31 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG, followed by Roman De Angelis in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
UP NEXT A 20-minute warm-up session at 8am local time ahead of a 10:10am Central time race start.