Joao Barbosa continued Action Express’ fast start to the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech season by scoring pole position in the #5 Mustang Sampling DPi with a 1:36.903. Dane Cameron made it a 1-2 for the team and Cadillac with a late charge in the #31 Whelen-liveried DPi.
“It’s really surprising, we’ve been working a lot and the car has changed since the separate tests,” commented Barbosa after the session. “I pushed really hard, it took a while to get the cars up to temperature but in the end it was good.
“The more we run the car, the more we learn.”
It looked as if it would be a repeat of Practice 1 and 2, with Cadillac managing a 1-2-3, but Neel Jani, who pushed the Rebellion Racing Oreca 07 to the limit put the Anglo-Swiss team third. Jani’s time, which came in the dying moments of qualifying was a 1:37.123 to push Ricky Taylor’s Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac to fourth.
The final spot in the overall top five meanwhile was taken by Jani’s Porsche LMP1 teammate Brendon Hartley, who set a 1:56.405 in the #22 ESM Nissan DPi. Ryan Dalziel put the sister ESM Nissan sixth.
Further down the order Mazda it was a tough session, with its two DPis down in a lowly ninth and tenth, the #55 ahead of the #70, over three seconds off the pole time.
Ford dominates GTLM
Joey Hand headlined a Ford 1-2-3 in GTLM, as the American marque locked out Qualifying for the Rolex 24. Hand’s best time in the #66 GT was a 1:43.473, 0.231 quicker than Richard Westbrook who put the #67 second.
Olivier Pla, who ran fastest in both Practice 1 and 2 ended up putting the #68 third to complete the top three lockout, five tenths off Hand’s flyer.
Best of the rest in the session was the Risi Ferrari, with Toni Vilander reeling off a 1:44.121. Like Le Mans last year, Risi will hope to take the fight to Ford once again after a strong showing of pace so far.
Patrick Pilet bookended the top five in GTLM in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR, his time almost eight tenths off Hand’s.
It was a tough session for both Corvette and BMW, with their best car’s ended up seventh and 10th respectively.
Ferrari 1-2 in GTD
Alessandro Pier Guidi narrowly put the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 on pole position for the 2017 Rolex 24 in GTD, just 0.018 ahead of Alessandro Balzan in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. Pier Guidi topped the screens early and later improved with his eventual pole time of 1:47.099.
Balzan tried to answer back though, and had one last dash to the flag, but just missed out on the top spot at the end.
“The car was great, we did a really good job in the morning, I wasn’t at the test, so I had to get some laps in early,” said a jubilant Pier Guidi. “I had to drive the car almost on my own to get up to speed.”
Third, and just over six tenths off pole was the Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Marco Sorensen. The British team will be very encouraged by Sorensen’s performance, showing off the ageing car’s pace. His best time was a 1:47.734 which was just enough to secure the third.
Matteo Cairoli, who’s best time was just 0.002 off Sorensen, put the #59 Manthey Porsche fourth, ahead of Mirko Bortolotti in the #11 GRT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 making it four manufacturers in the top five. The Italian’s time was a 1:47.785.
Further down the list of times, it was a promising session for Michael Shank Racing, which had its #93 Acura qualify seventh in the class after an early 1:48.268 that was initially good enough for third by Andy Lally.
There were no major dramas in the GTD session, aside from a small off for Daniel Morad at the back chicane in the Alegra Porsche, Stevenson’s R8 seen running slowly and the DAC Lamborghini limping to the pits at the very end of the session with a loss of power.
French storms to PC pole
James French scored PC pole in the Performance Tech Oreca, by pipping Buddy Rice to the top spot with five minutes remaining in the session, before going six tenths quicker on his final lap to nab first position by just over eight tenths.
Johnny Mowlem set the second fastest time, also at the end of the session to put the #26 BAR 1 Oreca second. Buddy Rice, who led the runners for most of the session was pushed to third in the second BAR 1 PC.
The session was almost entirely clean, aside from Chris Cumming who struggled with the handling of the #8 Starworks car, and had a minor spin at the Bus Stop.
Night Practice is next for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship runners, which begins tonight at 19:00 local time in Daytona.
