“We’re racing here at Detroit, it’s a short sprint race for us, just 100 minutes, and we’re on a narrow street circuit,” begins Nick Tandy, who scored the pole for today’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 …
“We’re racing here at Detroit, it’s a short sprint race for us, just 100 minutes, and we’re on a narrow street circuit,” begins Nick Tandy, who scored the pole for today’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 he’ll share with Mathieu Jaminet.
“So it makes the emphasis on qualifying even greater, of course. To have control of the pole position is mega for the start … but to have the front row to be able to control what’s happening into the first corner is a huge benefit for the team.”
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Tandy’s teammate Dane Cameron will start alongside in the No. 7 963 he’ll hand over to Felipe Nasr. Teammates starting side-by side on the front row can be a huge advantage if executed correctly. Of course, Tandy hopes they execute so well that the race, frankly, isn’t very exciting.
“We’re obviously very much now looking forward to the race and hoping that it’s going to be a very boring affair for everyone outside. But that’s the way that it will make it the best race for us, of course.”
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The PPM 963s weren’t the only front-row lockout in qualifying. The two Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.Rs will lead the GTD PRO field to the green, courtesy of Antonio Garcia’s pole lap in the No. 3, and Tommy Milner putting the No. 4 on the outside of the front row. The team achieved the same feat in the last outing at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Nicky Catsburg taking pole in the No.4 over Garcia. That one didn’t work out as intended, but Laguna Seca isn’t a narrow street circuit.
“It was definitely the first goal of the weekend,” declared Garcia. “We knew this track was going to be really tough to pass. So obviously to be up front and actually have Tommy beside me into Turn 1, actually, it’s kind of nice – not only to be all around (General Motors’ headquarters Renaissance Center) and have the both Corvettes on the front row.
“It’s definitely the best possible start we can have, and let’s see if we can finish what we didn’t at Laguna with the same one-two. We just have to run a cleaner run than the one we had there.”
Front-row sweeps are nice, but its hard to maintain the advantage throughout the race as traffic and pit stops come into play. And if the teams decide to split strategies between two cars, then it’s nearly impossible to keep them together and maintain the veneer of invincibility that two teammates leading a race provides.
If nothing else, a one-two qualifying is a great morale booster for the entire team. Both teams have major Detroit ties, too. The race is Roger Penske’s baby, conducted in the hometown of Penske Corporation. The race runs around GM’s headquarters, and Pratt Miller is not far away in New Hudson, Mich. As for building and maintaining momentum, Corvette Racing by PMM is looking to get the ball rolling with the first win for the Z06 GT3.R. PPM is a two-time winner so far in 2024, and the IndyCar Series side of the operation is coming off of massive success at the Indy 500.
“Detroit being one of Roger’s home events, let’s say the Penske Corporation, along with what’s going on with IndyCar … it’s a great thing,” said Tandy. “It’s following on from momentum that we’ve built as a team since the back end of last year across two championships with Porsche Penske Motorsport.
“Personally, it’s great to be the building on the momentum that we’ve got on the [No.] 6 side since since the win at Laguna Seca.”
It’s certainly been a good couple of weeks to be a Penske driver. First Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy took the second win of the season for Porsche Penske Motorsports in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna …
It’s certainly been a good couple of weeks to be a Penske driver. First Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy took the second win of the season for Porsche Penske Motorsports in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. That victory was also the 100th for Penske in sports car racing and the 600th for Porsche in IMSA competition. The following Sunday, Team Penske locked out the front row for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, and Joey Logano won the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Then Josef Newgarden, who drove with PPM for its 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona win, scored his second consecutive Indy 500 victory.
With all those other wins, adding triumphs for PPM Porsche 963s in the Rolex 24 and the World Endurance Championship season opener at Qatar, it’s shaping up to be a very good year for the sports car teams. Focus for now is on the 1h40m race on the streets of Detroit, but it will shift immediately to the biggest prize in sports car endurance racing, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Should the team claim victory in the famed French race, it would be Porsche’s 20th overall win.
Before his Indy 500 heroics Josef Newgarden was part of Porsche Penske Motorsports’ first triumph of 2024 for the organization, sharing the winning Porsche 963 GTP at the Rolex 24 with Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Bolstering its opportunities, in addition to its two regular cars for WEC, PPM is adding a third for IMSA regulars Felipe Nasr, Tandy and Jaminet. Of course, the manufacturer could get that 20th win from one of the other teams running the 963, JOTA and Proton Competition, as JOTA showed at Spa. A customer team taking a victory in WEC shows the strength of Porsche’s program at the moment.
“Last year, we all know the results … and we did a lot of hard work on both sides of the Atlantic, both teams, we worked on operation, we worked on the reliability — probably it was the biggest change from last year to this year,” explains Urs Kuratle, Porsche’s Motorsport Director of Factory Racing. “And third parties, the performance as well. So we worked on all those areas. If you participate in the Porsche family, Penske, in the championship, either IMSA or WEC, it doesn’t matter … but you’re there to win and you have to win — that was the expectation. Yes, we’ve come a long way if you want, but all the work, now it pays off. And the two teams and the customers, they’re making progress. All those things are coming together now and starting to pay off.”
Laurents Vanthoor — who races in WEC in the No. 6 963 with Andre Lotterer and Kevin Estre and joined Jaminet, Tandy and Estre in the No. 6 for a fourth-place finish at Daytona — agrees everything is moving in the right direction for the team.
“I think we are clearly on a very different path last year, which I think is normal. And I do have the confidence that this will carry on,” Vanthoor says. “I think we’ve been to a track which we knew favored us, where obviously the result was good; then we went to a track where we maybe were a little bit more worried, and nevertheless, the result was good as well. And we had a race [at Spa] where there were some troubles thrown our way, despite things going all right later on. Nevertheless, we performed and we executed. So that gives me the confidence that we’re going the right way, that we currently are making the right decisions.
“But we’re obviously not the only ones. The others will continue to work to try and catch us and there will be plenty of other competitors in Le Mans fighting for the same thing. But I’m having quite a lot of confidence going into Le Mans that we that we will be good — and also for the rest of the year.”
The same is true of the IMSA squads. Nasr and Dane Cameron lead the standings, while Tandy and Jaminet are fifth in a very tight points race. PPM Competition Director Travis Law is focused on the Detroit battle this weekend, but knows that each race builds on the next.
“It’s been a lot of success within the organization, which we really enjoy,” he says of Team Penske’s good days recently. “It’s great to see everyone’s else success — not that you need more motivation, but it’s definitely great. You want to be the next person to bring home another successful day and build on the the ones that you’ve seen. Across the PPM 963 organization, we’ve been working really hard on both sides to make sure we’re successful every weekend. We’re obviously looking forward to Le Mans and want to come back stronger than we were last year and hopefully have a similar result as Daytona.”
Expectations of excellence are shared across all the Penske teams and their crews. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Cameron, back in the IMSA fold after a season competing full-time in WEC, won’t be competing at Le Mans this year. But as the sports car driver with the most history in the Penske organization, he’ll be watching and rooting for the other teams competing at Indy and Charlotte this weekend as he prepares to get a second season victory for the No. 7 963 at Detroit.
“There’s not a lot of crossover between some of these programs unless there has to be, which you’ve seen in some of the personnel over the last few weeks,” Cameron explains. “On one hand it is it is a big family and we’re supportive of all the other divisions of Team Penske. But on the other side, our world is IMSA sports car at the moment and global Porsche 963 programs, so that’s kind of our focus. There’s really not much we can we can do or interact with the rest of it. But it was a good road over the weekend — the [IndyCar team] guys have got fast cars at the Speedway, so that’s always great, that makes me happy. Things are operating really well, I think, in every program at the moment, in terms of results as of late, so we just keep doing what we’re doing.”
It’s going to be a busy June for the Porsche Penske Motorsport squad and some of its personnel as the team has Detroit immediately followed the next weekend by Le Mans test day, then the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and culminating with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen a week after Le Mans. It will certainly be a challenge keeping the whirlwind moving on the right trajectory.
As the second half of the Rolex 24 at Daytona met its cool, dark genesis, Porsche Penske Motorsports found itself back in the overall lead at the hands of Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 963. With the race having gone green once again after Wayne …
As the second half of the Rolex 24 at Daytona met its cool, dark genesis, Porsche Penske Motorsports found itself back in the overall lead at the hands of Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 963.
With the race having gone green once again after Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport’s electrical hiccup, Vanthoor used the clean air to great effect to pull out a 15s lead over Maxime Martin’s No. 25 RLL BMW in just 30 minutes.
Previous leader Jack Aitken handed the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac over to teammate Tom Blomqvist during the FCY in the previous hour, the car falling to P4 after pitting.
“I was working a bit harder than usual,” Aitken told IMSA Radio after he exited the car. “There were a few nice on-track battles with the other guys. There’s a lot of traffic out there, so it’s keeping you on your toes.
“Now that it’s night and a bit cooler, we’ll try and extend the stints a little bit so we have a bit more time out of the car as well. I think we’ve got three capable guys, so it’s not too bad. …We all feel pretty comfortable in the car.”
Blomqvist went on a tear from 80s behind leader Vanthoor, clawing time back under green — just 0.5s off the tail of the Porsche with 17 minutes remaining in the hour. A powerful slipstream and Cadillac V8 torque allowed the No. 31 to sail past the Porsche on the outside along the backstretch heading into the Le Mans Chicane. Within two laps, Blomqvist had already pulled out a 1.5s lead.
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Deadstick drama came again, though, this time for the No. 24 RLL BMW of Dries Vanthoor. With 10 minutes left in the hour, the car — just like both WTR Acuras — went dark and rolled to a stop, bringing out another FCY. As the AMR Safety Team arrived on scene, Vanthoor’s lights were seen alight once again, but the car unmoved and later towed away from the infield.
Leading GTP crews pitted, most taking fuel only save for the No. 31 which dropped down the order to P4 after changing rubber. This left both Penske Porsches cycling through back to first and second overall, the No. 7 of Matt Campbell ahead of Vanthoor. Rene Rast’s RLL BMW moved to third, with Renger van der Zande following everyone else in the No. 01 Cadillac in P5.
LMP2 remained steady and drama-free, with the only significant change coming in the form of Formula 1 veteran Felipe Massa taking over the third-place No. 74 ORECA. Tom Dillman still leads in the No. 52.
The No. 3 Corvette of Alexander Sims pitted and handed the car over to Daniel Juncadella after moving into the GTD PRO lead over the Risi Ferrari just prior to the FCY, traffic having facilitated an immensely close fight.
There was little doubt that Porsche Penske Motorsport came into Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Battle On the Bricks on a mission to win. For one thing, the No. 6 Porsche 963 squad with …
There was little doubt that Porsche Penske Motorsport came into Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Battle On the Bricks on a mission to win. For one thing, the No. 6 Porsche 963 squad with Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy needed a victory to get back into the fight for the championship; they got it, and go into the finale in a virtual three-way tie for the championship. For another, team owner Roger Penske has also owned the famed track since 2020, so a one-two finish is almost expected.
But more than just owning the track is the Indy legacy that Penske has created. This first sports car win at the Brickyard for Penske is his 29th at Indianapolis, a record unmatched. It adds to 19 wins in the Indianapolis 500, the first coming in 1972 with Mark Donohue and the most recent this past May with Josef Newgarden. Then there are eight IndyCar Series wins on the Indy road course and a Brickyard 400 NASCAR victory. It’s also Penske’s 35th IMSA win.
“It was really important for us to get a one-two here,” said Matt Campbell, polesitter for the race and second-place finisher with Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 963. “This place is pretty special to our team, so to be able to do this on, let’s say, our home track, is really, really special. And obviously big congrats to the [No. 6 group]. They did a great race and it’s fantastic for their championship. It’s a really, really good position now for the team looking into the final race of the year.”
Like Australian Campbell, Brit Tandy may not have grown up steeped in Indy 500 lore or eagerly anticipating the month of May, but the meaning of winning the first GTP race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is certainly not lost on him.
“This is Indianapolis. You know, it’s a world-renowned historic venue. The IMSA series is a world-renowned historic race series, so coming into a venue like this, especially for Porsche Penske Motorsport and all the ties that Penske Corporation have with this place, is massive. It means a huge amount and the fact that team had a one-two makes it even sweeter.”
Nick Tandy said on Friday the only real way for he and Mathieu Jaminet to be in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title fight when the season concludes at Petit Le Mans next month was to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mission …
Nick Tandy said on Friday the only real way for he and Mathieu Jaminet to be in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title fight when the season concludes at Petit Le Mans next month was to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Mission accomplished as the two Porsche Penske Motorsport went one-two in Roger Penske’s playground.
“Second win of the season, came back in the championship fight, so it’s a great day for Porsche, for the whole team,” said Jaminet. “And the first one-two for for the Porsche Penske operation, so I think that’s a day for history books. Really pleased with that.”
The two PPM 963s had been dominant all weekend, leading all the practice sessions and locking out the front row in qualifying. In particular, it was Matt Campbell in the No. 7 who had been quickest. But a lockup at the start – deja vu for Campbell after a similar incident from pole at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca – and another at a critical moment for Campbell’s co-driver Felipe Nasr meant their teammates took their second victory of the season in the No. 6 963. It also turned the championship into a four-way battle at the finale, thanks in part to Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly finishing third in the No. 25 BMW.
Polesitter Campbell locked up heading into Turn 1 at the start and ran wide, sending Jaminet to the front.
“It was tough race for us,” said Campbell after noting the importance of the one-two finish for the team. “It sort of started going to shit a little bit at Turn 1. I just couldn’t stop the car on a dirty line, unfortunately, and just ran that little bit wide.”
Campbell’s bobble may have contributed to a mess behind him, where Philipp Eng in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 tagged Sebastien Bourdais’s No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac, spinning it. Tom Blomqvist couldn’t get the No. 60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 stopped in time, and the Acura and Cadillac had nose-to-nose contact. Bourdais had to take the Cadillac in for emergency service during the ensuing full-course caution (two GTD cars also had contact at the start, giving further cause for a caution) for a new nose and tire. Blomqvist was left with an ill-handling car until the nose could be replaced during the first pit stop, which came during a full-course caution. Neither car would be much of a factor afterward.
That left Jaminet in the lead, Campbell in pursuit, with the pair of BMWs in third (No. 24) and fourth (No. 25). Things quickly went south for Eng and the No. 24, as he first had to pit for a new tire, then a new nose, and then a long stop for a power-loss issue that left him 10 laps down.
While the two PPM 963s finished-one two at the boss’s racetrack, where naturally they had had an abundance of testing, it was far from a sure thing in the middle of the race. Through a rather bizarre set of circumstances that began with the second of the race’s two full-course cautions – which came somewhat ideally for most competitors at just under two hours to go in the race, Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R was in command. In fact, one of the most memorable images of IMSA’s return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway may have been Derani jockeying with Tandy for position behind the safety car.
All the GTP leaders came in for tires, fuel and new drivers, with the exception of AXR, which kept Derani in the car while changing tires and fueling. Derani actually left the pits in between the two Porsches, but couldn’t merge and had to fall behind before the pit exit. When the class split commenced, the Porsches didn’t go, and Derani did. Officials determined that Nasr and Tandy hadn’t followed proper procedure for the class split, and had to give the lead to Derani. For a few moments of confusion, they seemed to be fighting for the position as they circulated behind the safety car.
“I was a little late, getting the call to go, but I had already pulled out in line to initiate the class split and and I went for it,” explained Tandy. “But at the same time, the 31 obviously had already started exhilarating and did pass us before we made made the class split. So I maintained my my position that we had, hopefully, done the procedure correct, they obviously felt that they had done the procedure correctly, and it was obviously ruled by race control that they should be in front. It compromised, a little bit I think both of our tire warm-up, being side by side for two laps.”
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Derani was in front, and determined to stay there. Nasr got by Tandy, and proceeded to attack whenever the opportunity arose, but Derani remained in control for a while, even getting some nice advantages in traffic. With a little over an hour to go, Derani got held up by a couple of LMP3 cars racing each other in the Turn 12-13 complex. That gave Nasr a good run down the long front straight, and as Derani approached the turn, moving inside another P3 car, he locked up and ran wide just as Campbell had done at the start. Both Porsches went through, Nasr leading over Tandy.
For 20 minutes they battled, nearly touching each other at one point, until the final round of pit stops. Nasr brought the No. 7 in first, but on cold tires on the out lap, he locked up and slid into the grass while Tandy was getting tires and fuel. That was the difference in the race, and the No. 6 cruised to victory without further harassment.
“It feels good,” declared Jaminet. “I’ve been very disappointed since Watkins Glen. We’ve had only — pretty much — bad races. And looking at it, it still hurts. So we finally get a win back, and that put us back on the championship hunt. And I’m just hungry for more, to be honest. I just want to go to Atlanta now and race.”
The No. 31 was still looking at a podium finish, which would have put the team in a much better position going into the finale, but De Phillippi took over third after Derani handed the Cadillac over to Alexander Sims, who brought the No. 31 home fourth. Erstwhile championship leaders Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor finished fifth in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura.
The fact that the top four in the championship finished in inverse order of the points coming in meant that it’s a dead heat going into the Petit Le Mans finale for the first championship of the new GTP era. Sims and Derani now lead with 2460 points. Albuquerque and Taylor are only three points back, and Jaminet and Tandy are five points off the lead. But De Phillippi and Yelloly still have a solid shot at the title, being only 38 points – which could be two positions in the race – out of the lead. Even Nasr and Campbell, as unlikely as it might be, are within reach of the championship.
“I said before the weekend, we really simply needed to win here to have a decent shot going into Atlanta, and it’s given us a chance at the end of the day,” said Tandy. “To give the people that work in his team a chance of winning a championship in Atlanta. It’s amazing. So really, really pleased to cross that yard [of bricks]. It was it was an emotional moment for sure.
Jake Galstad/Lumen
Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen won LMP2 in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA, propelling them into the lead of that class championship.
“When we started the year our goal was to win the championship,” said Thomas. “So that’s at the front of our mind all the time. But you know, right in front of you is a win in Indianapolis, so that’s a pretty big deal if you’re a racer anywhere in the world. So we were thrilled to get the win and thrilled now to be in first place.”
It wasn’t an easy victory by any means. When Jensen got in the car, he had a big deficit to the No. 8 Tower Motorsports car of Dan Goldburg and Louis Deletraz, and the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA of Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin, but they had pitted during the second yellow leaving them with more than an hour-and-a-half to go for two stints, and needed to drive conservatively to make it to the end.
“When we had the yellow, the Tower car and the PR1 car pitted, but it was probably three laps short for them to make it to the end, so they had to fuel save,” explained Jensen. “So when I got in the car, I had 50s to the leader, 40 seconds to P2. And obviously they have to fuel save, but you never know how much do you have to push. After the first stint I was up in second and then only had to pass for the lead. But the whole race you’re hunting something and I think they were even over doing their fuel numbers to try and see if they could put pressure on us. But we just tried to stay consistent, focus on our own race and at the end they had to give up and lost a lot of pace because they had to save a lot of fuel.”
Goldburg and Deletraz ended up second, and George Kurtz and Ben Hanley in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA were third. Jensen and Thomas lead Keating and Chatin in the championship by 20 points, 1680 to 1660. It’s another 80 points back to Kurtz and Hanley.
Jake Galstad/Lumen
The LMP3 championship may be out of reach, but Anthony Mantella and Wayne Boyd had plenty to celebrate after taking the second LMP3 victory of the season, the first coming in the non-points Rolex 24 at Daytona. Boyd had to overcome his own spin in the No. 17 AWA Duqueine to take the victory, however.
“I had a lack of talent in Turn 8 early on in my stint,” Boyd explainjed. “I just took too much curb and lost it but, thankfully, it was basically a 360 and we got going again very quickly. It was interesting because … it wasn’t planned, but it actually opened up our strategy a little bit more because we were kind of further back, then it allowed us to go longer in the stint, which really paid off into our favor.”
Mantella and Boyd are 244 points back of Gar Robinson, who has virtually clinched the championship, and 29 points ahead of Garret Grist going into the finale.
Porsche Penske Motorsport continued to show the preparation-fueled dominance evident so far this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, locking out the front row for Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar …
Porsche Penske Motorsport continued to show the preparation-fueled dominance evident so far this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, locking out the front row for Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Matt Campbell led the qualifying to put the No. 7 Porsche 963 on pole with a 1m13.672s lap, an average of 119.18mph around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn circuit.
“A one-two for the team, obviously, it’s a big thing.” Campbell said. “It’s our home track more or less and we put in a lot of effort and miles here in testing and it’s really paid off, I think. Fantastic for that result, and now on to tomorrow, but great results so far. And I think tomorrow’s race will be really, really tough.”
Mathieu Jaminet fell 0.152s short of putting the No. 6 963 on pole, and will instead start on the outside of the front row alongside his teammate. Locking out the front row was no surprise given the way the team has been dominant at the boss’s race track, and Campbell put that down to the testing they’d been able to do at the facility.
“I’d say each time we’ve come here, the track’s been a little bit different with track conditions and weather and so forth. But certainly coming here as a package and as a group, we could really hit the ground running and knew exactly where we were when we started the weekend. And I think that’s really paid off. We’ve only had to really make small changes and tuning to the car for each of the sessions,” Campbell explained.
Tom Blomqvist put in some outstanding laps for Meyer Shank Racing to start the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 on the inside of the second row thanks to a 1m13.864s lap. Sebastien Bourdais will start the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R alongside Blomqvist.
The pair of BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s looked good in the morning session, but couldn’t maintain their position, and will start sixth (Philipp Eng in the No. 24) and seventh (Nick Yelloly in the No. 25), Ricky Taylor having qualified the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ahead of them in fifth.
Gar Robinson’s No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier LMP3 hammered into the tires at Turn 6 with about seven minutes having elapsed in the combined LMP2/LMP3 qualifying session, bringing out a red flag. The time ran out before the car could be recovered and the track cleared, but officials added sufficient time for the session to have 10 minutes total, the minimum amount for it to be considered an official qualifying session. Had they not, it would have been, ironically, Robinson on the LMP3 pole because he’s leading the points.
As it turns out, the extra time didn’t make a big difference; the two drivers who had set the fast time before the red flag had the fast time afterward as well. Ben Keating did improve with his extra flyer, but he was already on the LMP2 pole. His 1m17.950s in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA was 0.440s better than George Kurtz, who will start the No. 04 Crowdstrike by APR ORECA alongside Keating. The pole was Keating’s 13th in IMSA competition, moving him out of a tie to sole ownership of second on the all-time list, and two behind leader Ricky Taylor.
“Something I’ve been working hard on this whole year is to bring my tires up to temperature as quickly as I can because typically in qualifying, with either the P2 or the GTP class, the fast laps usually come at the very end because it takes such a long time to get your tires up to pressure. I’ve been working really hard on doing that safely without ruining the tires that I have to run in the race, and I think that was the difference today, really – especially with the red flag that we had,” Keating explained.
With Robinson out of qualifying, VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3 points leader Bijoy Garg took the LMP3 pole in only his second WeatherTech Championship race. Garg pushed the No. 29 Jr III Racing Ligier to a 1m20.513s lap to take the pole ahead of Nolan Siegel in the other Jr III Racing Ligier. Those two had 0.469s between, them, and it was another 1.5s back to Orey Fidani in the No. 13 Sean Creech Motorsport Duqueine.
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“It was a real team effort. We started decently far off – I didn’t think the car felt that good. But, you know, we’ve been making changes all throughout practice and especially between first and second practices, it felt like we made a massive step in the right direction. I knew we had a good car and it was just a matter of putting a lap together early and we did that. Really happy for the whole team especially to get a one-two.”
Madison Snow turned in yet another stellar qualifying performance, claiming not only the GTD pole, but the overall GT pole for the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. Snow was fastest in every sector to post a 1m23.075s lap (105.69mph) and put four GTD PRO cars between him and the next GTD competitor, the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 qualified by Mikael Grenier. It was Snow’s 12th pole position in IMSA competition, temporarily putting him in a four-way tie for second all-time with James French, Keating and Jordan Taylor until Keating got his 13th a short time later.
“I think it’s special and it means a lot for the team,” said Snow. “It means a lot for me to see where we qualified and how we were able to improve from the practice sessions. The car honestly was perfect for us out there; I don’t think I’ve said that before. It did everything that I wanted it to do. And that was down to the Paul Miller Racing team to get everything set up how it was. As far as the race goes. I’ve definitely said this before: It’s awesome to have a gap to the class cars. It also makes me very nervous to have that caliber driver right behind me and especially a lot of them.”
After co-driver Patrick Pilet set the fast time for the morning session in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, Klaus Bachler echoed that performance by claiming the GTD PRO pole to start on the outside of the first row of GT cars. Bachler was 0.165s off Snow’s time at 1m23.140s.
“The team did a very good job,” declared Bachler, who with co-driver Patrick Pilet is trying to overtake Corvette Racing for second in the championship. “We struggled a bit the last weekend. We also got a BoP change, which is helping us. Definitely feels good to be on pole. It’s my second one. I think tomorrow will be a hard race with all the different classes here again, and you’ve seen in practice many things happen already. It’s good to be on pole, but tomorrow is what counts with the big points and as the championship also comes to an end.”
Jules Gounon improved on his final lap, but it wasn’t enough to surpass Bachler and the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG will start on the inside of the second row as Gounon recorded a best time of 1m23.290s. Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 will start alongside Gounon.
Alex Riberas will start the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin GT3 on the inside of the third row, accompanied by Grenier, who recorded a 1m23.424s to qualify second in GTD, 0.233s quicker than Patrick Gallagher in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 that will start on the inside of row 4, Jordan Taylor in the GTD PRO No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R alongside. Misha Goikhberg (No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2) and Russell Ward (No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG) were fourth and fifth in GTD.
Up Next: A 20-minute warmup session Sunday at 8 a.m. ET, ahead of a 1:10 p.m. start for the 2h40m race.
Click HERE for updated GTP results after a post-race penalty was applied to the class-leading Porsche 963 late in the evening. The last half of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen featured intense battles and four different manufacturers fighting for …
Click HERE for updated GTP results after a post-race penalty was applied to the class-leading Porsche 963 late in the evening.
The last half of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen featured intense battles and four different manufacturers fighting for the victory, with strategy eventually taking hold to set up the final battle. That strategy put the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly out front, pursued by the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet. Pace and traffic, though, eventually brought Tandy and Jaminet their second win of the season to help them pad their IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP lead.
“What a race, honestly,” declared Tandy. “It didn’t fail to live up to promise and it was as good to drive as it was to watch. Watching Mathieu out there… I mean, that last stint, it was … I love racing, and that was fun to watch. When your car is involved with it, it’s even better – when you come out on top, of course. We had a big change in track conditions from the beginning to the end. And I think you saw a difference in the relative performance of the cars. We were really strong in the beginning. Of course, it was great to run one–two and come to be out front, kind of controlling the race, but you always know there’s a chance of a full-course yellow to kind of reset of the strategy as such that you have to make sure the car is good and you have some information for the run to the flag.”
While the early second-half driver stints featured Jack Aitken doing a masterful job keeping the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac in front and maintaining a gap over Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, it was strategy in the final 90 minutes on which the race turned, setting up a BMW vs. Porsche battle as De Phillippi did everything he could to keep the BMW ahead of Jaminet’s Porsche while the gap steadily decreased. Both were pushing their cars to 1m33s laps with victory was on the line.
Traffic was the determining factor. Jaminet was able to close as De Phillipi was held up by battling LMP2 and LMP3 cars. With Jaminet on his tail, De Phillippi came up on GTD leader Aaron Telitz, who was being passed by a couple of other prototypes. Jaminet went right, De Phillippi went left. Right was correct; De Phillippi got bottled up, and Jaminet was through. De Phillippi went wide in the following corners, dirtying his tires and ending any opportunity to counter-attack. The final aria was Bill Auberlen crashing and rolling the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW with three minutes left, bringing out the final caution under which the race would end.
The strategy that put the polesitting Porsche and the BMW back out front started to unfold with 90 minutes left. Both BMW Team RLL and PPM gambled, bringing in their cars to split the remainder of the race into equal stints requiring less time on both stops. MSR and AXR, on the other hand, appeared to be going for a long stint followed by a shorter one. However, AXR was the first to reverse that strategy, bringing Pipo Derani in after 30 minutes to try to force BMW and Porsche to change their plan. MSR followed suit, but choosing to take energy only, no tires.
It almost worked, but not quite. BMW M Team RLL brought De Phillippi in a lap later for energy and tires, squeezing him out ahead of Derani. PPM kept the No. 6 out, then with Nick Tandy at the wheel, risking disaster should a yellow come out. With 40m left, PPM brought the 963 in, gave it energy and tires, and installed Jaminet in the driver’s seat. The Porsche now had fresher tires and the chase was on.
“I come out of the pits, knew the gap was quite big,” explained Jaminet. “But as we know, there’s just so many cars out there on pure pace, so it was all about traffic. So we just said, ‘OK, let’s take full risk.’ We agreed, let’s not think about the championship and let’s just go all in and see what happens. And I just saw that with the traffic lap after lap. I was just slightly coming, tenths after tenths. And then I started to see him; It starts to feel good when you start to see the car in front of you. And then I also know the feeling when you are the car behind and it doesn’t feel as comfortable when you’re the leader and you see that you’re hunted. We came to Turn 7 and there was traffic in front of us and I saw a small gap on the inside. So just basically went in and just hope it works and back on power, hope we have traction and it works on the exit. I made the pass and he gave me just the space for it, so it was a fair drive from from Connor and worked out.”
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With the race ending under yellow, De Phillippi and Yelloly finished second, their third second-place finish of the season in a race they were in good position to win.
“For sure, it’s frustrating. I mean, given the action where we were after the first hour or so, with the contact and a lot of other chaos, I think at that point if you would have asked if we would be happy with second we’d say yes,” said De Phillippi. “But obviously once you get yourself in position … Nick drove a fantastic triple stint to the middle of the race. He definitely Iron Man’d that. I knew when I got in I had to drive the wheels off it. We did a great undercut. We came up with great strategy, came out in front, opened a gap and I really was was confident with the car. Everything felt totally in control.
“But it’s multi-class racing. All it took was two laps where I had LMP3 cars driving next to each other for like two-and-a-half corners; you’re going to lose two or three seconds and there’s nothing you can do about it. When you’re the chaser you have a 50-50 shot, you just got to go opposite of the guy ahead of you and you have a higher chance of getting it right. And when you’re the leader you you have a bigger chance of getting caught out, so that’s just how it is. I’m for sure frustrated with myself but in the end it’s it’s racing. The team is doing a great job, we’re making steps in the right direction. I know the win is coming so we’ve just to keep our heads down, keep it professional and keep moving forward.”
Derani, Aitken and Alexander Sims were third in the No. 31 AXR Cadillac followed by the No. 60 MSR Acura of Braun and Tom Blomqvist.
The rest of the GTP field fell out of contention in a variety of incidents and issues. The No. 24 BMW of Argusto Farfus and Philip Eng was the first out, Farfus spinning the car into the barrier at the exit of Turn 1 at the start, bringing out the race’s first caution
An incident just past the one-hour mark put a damper on a couple of efforts, notably the No. 01 Chip Ganasssi Racing Cadillac. Sebastien Bourdais misjudged a corner exit and caught a GTD Porsche more quickly than expected. He balked and juked, losing the rear end in the process. The sudden loss of speed had Connor de Phillippi, who was right behind him in the No. 25 BMW, making contact, damaging the nose of the BMW. The Cadillac, however, spun and hit the barrier, needing a lot of work to get it race-able again. That came about through a series of pit stops, starting with one for emergency service to get a new nose (the BMW received the same), but the car also needed a new tail section, engine cover and other bits that put them three laps down.
Second place was a bad position to be in the third hour. With Porsche running one-two, Felipe Nasr brought the No. 7 PPM 963 into the pits from second, went straight through and headed toward the paddock. Unfortunately, the safety light indicating that the car was safe to touch was not on, and it was a long time before the crew could get it back to work on it. The crew was eventually able to return it to the track, 100 laps down.
The Porsche exit put Filipe Albuquerque into second, but with about 30 minutes left in the first half of the race, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura lost a wheel.
Albuquerque made it back to the pits, but had to take the NASCAR shortcut that bypasses the Boot, and thus lost a lap. Adding insult to injury, after the crew put a new wheel on without issue, Albuquerque was handed a drive-through penalty for a pit lane speed violation. The No. 10 would experience a variety of other issues and eventually retire with about 30 minutes left.
Aside from starting on points because qualifying was canceled due to a sudden downpour, the race threw another curve at competitors – a choice in tire compounds, which was a late decision by IMSA and Michelin based on lower-than-typical temperatures seen so far during the weekend. Most teams were hesitant to use the newly available softer compound since they didn’t have any experience with them, but there was speculation that the Porsche had those tires on for the final stint, although neither Tandy nor Jaminet would confirm and said they didn’t know.
With the victory, Tandy and Jaminet have 1692 points to lead the championship. Derani and Sims are 78 points back, and De Phillippi and Yelloly are 158 points off the lead.
Jake Galstad/Lumen
LMP2 competitors started taking themselves out early. The biggest incident that affected several frontrunners happened just a little more than half an hour into the race. Salih Yoluc in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA, subbing for John Farano, dive bombed Ben Keating’s No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen machine, spinning Keating. Steven Thomas was next on the scene and, in trying to avoid the incident, put the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA into the barrier. Thomas and Mikkel Jensen were leading the points in the class.
In the end, George Kurtz backed up his 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 Pro-Am class win with his first LMP2 win in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship. Kurtz, Ben Hanley and rising star Nolan Siegel took victory in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA over the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA of Dwight Merriman, Ryan Dalziel and Christian Rasmussen.
“It’s been a great month and the team did a fantastic job,” said Kurtz. “I’ve got to recognize my co-drivers who are mega. When you look at the level of competition in P2, this is a stout field and to be able to come away with the win here is incredibly gratifying and it shows the teamwork that we have and and the drivers and the program we put together. So overall, I couldn’t be happier. It’s been a great month and want to keep the momentum going.”
The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports team with Ben Keating, Paul-Loup Chatin and Alex Quinn was third. The LMP2 points battle three races in is extremely tight. Jensen and Thomas still lead with 1005 points, but Hanley and Kurtz are only four points behind them and two points ahead of Keating and Chatin.
Jake Galstad/Lumen
Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon still have a perfect record in LMP3 in 2023, having added the Six Hours of the Glen victory to their Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring title. The No. 75 Riley Motorsports squad beat the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier of Garrett Grist, Dakota Dickerson and Dylan Murray, who only got the call to step into the car this morning.
Fraga emerged from the final pit stop behind Grist, but a masterful move that saw the pair side-by-side through the Inner Loop got the No. 74 back in front. The No. 17 AWA Duqueine of Anthony Mantella, Wayne Boyd and Nico Varrone was third.
With two wins, the trio have a perfect 765 points, 129 ahead of lars Kern, Matt Bell and Orey Fidani.
The last half of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen featured intense battles and four different manufacturers fighting for the victory, with strategy eventually taking hold to set up the final battle. That strategy put the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M …
The last half of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen featured intense battles and four different manufacturers fighting for the victory, with strategy eventually taking hold to set up the final battle. That strategy put the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly out front, pursued by the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet. Pace and traffic, though, eventually brought Tandy and Jaminet their second win of the season to help them pad their IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP lead.
While the early second-half driver stints featured Jack Aitken doing a masterful job keeping the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac in front and maintaining a gap over Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, it was strategy in the final 90 minutes on which the race turned, setting up a BMW vs. Porsche battle as De Phillippi did everything he could to keep the BMW ahead of Jaminet’s Porsche while the gap steadily decreased. Both were pushing their cars to 1m33s laps with victory was on the line.
Traffic was the determining factor. Jaminet was able to close as De Phillipi was held up by battling LMP2 and LMP3 cars. With Jaminet on his tail, De Phillippi came up on the GTD leader, who was being passed by a couple of other prototypes. Jaminet went right, De Phillippi went left. Right was correct; De Phillippi got bottled up, and Jaminet was through. De Phillippi went wide in the following corners, dirtying his tires and ending any opportunity to counter-attack. The final aria was Bill Auberlen crashing and rolling the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW with three minutes left, bringing out the final caution under which the race would end.
The strategy that put the polesitting Porsche and the BMW back out front started to unfold with 90 minutes left. Both BMW Team RLL and PPM gambled, bringing in their cars to split the remainder of the race into equal stints requiring less time on both stops. MSR and AXR, on the other hand, appeared to be going for a long stint followed by a shorter one. However, AXR was the first to reverse that strategy, bringing Pipo Derani in after 30 minutes to try to force BMW and Porsche to change their plan. MSR followed suit, but choosing to take energy only, no tires.
It almost worked, but not quite. BMW M Team RLL brought De Phillippi in a lap later for energy and tires, squeezing him out ahead of Derani. PPM kept the No. 6 out, then with Nick Tandy at the wheel, risking disaster should a yellow come out. With 40m left, PPM brought the 963 in, gave it energy and tires, and installed Jaminet in the driver’s seat. The Porsche now had fresher tires and the chase was on.
With the race ending under yellow, De Phillippi and Yelloly finished second, their third second-place finish of the season. Derani, Aitken and Alexander Sims were third in the No. 31 AXR Cadillac.
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The final battle for GTD PRO was no less intense as Daniel Serra, in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 that he had put on pole yesterday was hammering on Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, but Hawksworth was able to hold Serra off to claim the duo’s second victory of the season and increase their points lead.
The No. 14 had been out front for most of the race, but in the final round of pit stops it almost all went south. A drive-through penalty for a pit-lane speed violation put Hawksworth behind Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R, where he was stuck for a long time. He finally saw his opportunity, dove inside at Turn 7 to take the apex away from Garcia. That slowed him enough that Serra was able to sneak through as well. Serra and Davide Rigon finished second for Risi, with Garcia and Jordan Taylor third.
Ahead of all of them, though, was the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, where it had been all day, with Aaron Telitz, Frankie Montecalvo and Parker Thompson winning GTD as well as finishing first among the GT cars overall. The No. 12 did have some challenges, notably from the Iron Dames as Michelle Gatting battled with Montecalvo in the middle of the race before being felled by a mechanical black flag for a tire specification violation.
The drive of the race came from the Paul Miller Racing crew. A disconnection between steering wheel and car left them sitting in the pits, eventually going two laps down. Some lucky breaks with pass-arounds and wave-by enabled them to get their laps back in one go, and Corey Lewis, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow put their heads down to move through the field to get to second and help secure their championship lead. Ryan Hardwick, Jan Heylen and Zacharie Robichon finished third in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R.
George Kurtz backed up his 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 Pro-Am class win with his first LMP2 win in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship, with him, Ben Hanley and rising start Nolan Siegel taking victory in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA over the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA of Dwight Merriman, Ryan Dalziel and Christian Rasmussen.
Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon still have a perfect record in LMP3 in 2023, having added the Six Hours of the Glen victory to their Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring title. The No. 75 Riley Motorsports squad beat the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier of Garrett Grist, Dakota Dickerson and Dylan Murray, who only got the call to step into the car this morning.
What looked to possibly be a dual Porsche runaway is now a Porsche vs. Acura fight with Cadillac and BMW still in the hunt as the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 with Mathieu Jaminet at the wheel effectively, if not officially, leading over Tom …
What looked to possibly be a dual Porsche runaway is now a Porsche vs. Acura fight with Cadillac and BMW still in the hunt as the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 with Mathieu Jaminet at the wheel effectively, if not officially, leading over Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 at the Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen.
The No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R was out front at the halfway point, having gone off sequence with a short stop in order to claim the points awarded for the Michelin Endurance Cup after three hours. AXR were leading the MEC points coming into the Six Hours.
Second place was a bad position to be in the third hour. First Felipe Nasr brought the No. 7 PPM 963 into the pits from second, went straight through and headed toward the paddock. Unfortunately, the safety light indicating that the car was safe to touch was not on, and it was a long time before the crew could get it back to work on it. That put Filipe Albuquerque into second, but with about 30 minutes left in the first half of the race, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura lost a wheel. Albuquerque made it back to the pits, but had to take the NASCAR shortcut that bypasses the Boot, and thus lost a lap. Adding insult to injury, after the crew put a new wheel on without issue, Albuquerque was handed a drive-through penalty for a pit lane speed violation. The No. 10 is two laps down in seventh.
An incident just past the one-hour mark put a damper on a couple of efforts, notably the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Sebastien Bourdais misjudged a corner exit and caught a GTD Porsche more quickly than expected. He balked and juked, losing the rear end in the process. The sudden loss of speed had Connor de Phillippi, who was right behind him in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, making contact, damaging the nose of the BMW. The Cadillac, however, spun and hit the barrier, needing a lot of work to get it race-able again. That came about through a series of pit stops, starting with one for emergency service to get a new nose (the BMW received the same), but the car also needed a new tail section, engine cover and other bits. Renger van der Zande was three laps down in sixth at halfway, while the No. 25, now with Nick Yelloly at the wheel, was on the lead lap in fourth. Four GTPs, one of each make, were on the lead lap at halfway.
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It was Lexus leading both GT classes as the race neared halfway, although in GTD that came about through a bit of luck. Iron Dames had gone for a big overcut, and Michelle Gatting in the No. 83 Iron Dames Lamborghini was leading Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F. However, as has happened to several cars, the No. 83 received a mechanical black flag for tire requirements. That could be a pressure outside the specified parameters, or more likely a malfunctioning TPMS unit.
Ben Barnicoat was at the head of the GTD PRO field in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, but the top three in the class was the same top three as qualifying and the No. 14 is still in a close battle with the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini with Andrea Caldarelli at the wheel. The polesitting No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 is third, Davide Rigon in the cockpit.
Nolan Siegel led LMP2 in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA at halfway, pursued by Paul-Loup Chatin in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry and Giedo van der Garde in the No. 35 TDS Racing ORECA.
In LMP3, it was the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier up front, Josh Burdon at the wheel. Nico Varrone was second in the No. 17 AWA Duqueine, followed by Dakota Dickerson in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier.
After a trio of yellows in the first 70 minutes of the race, it has been green flag running since.
Heavy rain that begin just as the LMP2 and LMP3 cars went out to set the grid scuttled qualifying for all the prototype classes, which will all be set based on points. The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy will …
Heavy rain that begin just as the LMP2 and LMP3 cars went out to set the grid scuttled qualifying for all the prototype classes, which will all be set based on points. The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy will start on pole for tomorrow’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken alongside.
“It’s a culmination of the last five, six months of work actually,” said Tandy, who was slated to qualify the No. 7. “Of course, everybody wants to run in qualifying. In a six hour race, especially, it’s not the most important part of the weekend and we all know this, but it’s a chance for … it’s a different type of competition, and it carries points for the championship, so everybody wants to compete. But honestly, when I saw the cars going off in the in the LMP session before, and saw the forecast that was likely coming and has come, I wasn’t excited to go out there because the the level of risk for something going wrong is is massive. With prototype machinery, if the plank hydroplanes on water, this can happen even before the tires do, so it’s a very treacherous set of conditions.”
The second row will have the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 with Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque inside and the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais outside.
The cancellation of qualifying was likely met with big disappointment by several teams, notably the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura team, for whom Colin Braun had set the fast time in both sessions and had also been quick in wet conditions during yesterday’s first free practice. The BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s had starred as well in the morning practice session, turning the second and third-quickest fast laps.
Rain had actually hit just before GTD and GTD PRO went out for qualifying, but only in one section of the track from the top of the Esses headed to the Inner Loop, affecting the brake zone for the chicane. It dried as the session progressed, and Loris Spinelli turned several consecutive quick laps, eventually setting a new lap record and claiming the overall GT pole as well as the Motul Pole Award for GTD in the No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo22 he’ll share with Misha Goikhberg and Patrick Liddy. Spinelli’s 1m44.430s lap was 0.069s better than the outright GTD track record, set by Jack Hawksworth for Lexus in 2018.
“Just in the last three laps the brake point in the Bus Stop was (becoming) dry,” said Spinelli. “When the team said to me that I was missing the pole position, I was trying to push really hard at that point, because I knew that I was going really easy there, so just brake a bit later. In free practice we drove just for a couple laps due to (a red flag and rain), but we are not in the best shape so far with the setup. But I really appreciate the effort of the team this weekend, and I think for the race we could have a good result.”
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Meanwhile, Daniel Serra claimed the first IMSA pole for the Ferrari 296 GT3 by setting fast time for GTD PRO and will start alongside Spinelli in the No. 62 Risi Competizione machine after turning a lap at 1m44.829s.
“Qualifying was quite tricky. The track was completely dry, just arriving on Bus Stop was completely wet,” Serra explained. “So it was more about how much risk you take on the braking in the Bus Stop than the rest of the track. The car was really great to drive. It’s always nice to qualify and I love it and especially on this track that is really high speed.”
It will be another Lamborghini on the inside of the second row, with Jordan Pepper driving the GTD PRO No. 63 Iron Lynx Huracán to second in the class. Aaron Telitz, quickest in this morning’s session, qualified the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 second in GTD and fourth overall to start outside the second row. His 1m45.203s lap was 0.773s off Spinelli’s blistering time.
Jack Hawksworth took third in GTD PRO and fifth overall with a 1m45.297s lap in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. GTD cars took the next two sports, Doriane Pin marking the Iron Dames’ best qualifying effort to date with a 1m45.325 in the No. 83 Lamborghini. She was followed by Madison Snow in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3, 0.109s back. Jules Gounon (No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG) and Jordan Taylor (No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R) make up the all-GTD PRO fifth row.
The three manufacturers that made up the first six places in GT qualifying all received Balance of Performance breaks prior to the weekend. The Ferrari (30kg) and Lamborghini (20kg) both lost weight, while the Lexus received a larger restrictor.
Most of the LMP2 and LMP3 cars never made a lap as rain started just as the green flag waved for the session, with the majority of cars on slicks. Some tried to make it around to set a time, while many headed straight back into the pits with hopes that officials would allow a tire change. But on their first full lap, several cars crashed in Turn 7 where the water was deepest, bringing out the red flag. First Ari Balogh in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier LMP3 slid off, then Ben Keating in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 slid into him. Keating’s car was then hit by the No. 17 AWA Duqueine LMP3 driven by Anthony Mantella. All three drivers were checked and released by medical personnel.
With the grid set on points, Steven Thomas becomes the polesitter for LMP2 in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA, with Keating alongside. Gar Robinson, by virtue of Riley Motorsports winning the only points-paying race so far, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, starts on the LMP3 pole in the No. 74 Ligier, with the No. 13 AWA Duqueine of Orey Fidani, Matthew Bell and Lars Kern alongside.
Up Next: A 20-minute warm-up session at 8 a.m. ahead of the 10:40 a.m. race start.
