Mazda Amaze
Mazda completed a dominant sweep of all track sessions into qualifying at the track that bears their name with both front row slots at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Tristan Nunez took pole position in the #55 Mazda with a 1:18.143, the first overall pole for the team and the marque in current IMSA competition, ahead of team-mate Tom Long in the sister #70 car who had topped the session with a 1:18.379 for mere moments before Nunez edged out his team-mate with his track record time.
Qualifying then repeated the pattern set in all three practice sessions with 1,2 for the Mazda pair throughout the weekend so far.
“We knew what we had coming here, the car loves this track,” said Nunez. “We pushed our hearts out in these cars. There’s no better place than Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for our first pole, and I’m extremely honored to be able to do that. All that hard work by the team is finally paying off and we have a pretty competitive package now. It’s going to show now and for the rest of the season.”
The last Mazda powered overall pole came in 2013 in the American Le Mans Series for Dyson Racing with Nunez’s last sports car pole also coming in 2013, again at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, in the Grand-Am GX class in a SpeedSource Mazda 6.
Dane Cameron qualified third in the #31 Whelen/ Action Express Corvette DP, 1:19.072 edging out Ricky Taylor who set 1:19.119 in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP.
PC Pole for PR1
Robert Alon set his first class pole position with a 1:21.146 in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, the first for the team since Tom Kimber Smith set pole in PC at the 2015 season finale at Road Atlanta.
“They told me on the radio that it was very, very tight,” Alon said. “I just kept my head down and kept pushing. I used every inch of the track. Then my final lap was what did it. I think being on the pole is going to be very important in Sunday’s race.”
James French led into the closing minutes of the 15-minute session before Alon edged ahead. French settled for second with a lap of 1:21.285 in the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca.
Alex Popow qualified third in the #8 Starworks Motorsport ORECA co-driven by Renger van der Zande: “It was a very disappointing qualifying run,” Popow said. “We expected to win pole, but I couldn’t get a good lap together. But I think we’ll have a good car for the race tomorrow.”
Que Serra, Ferrari Set GTLM Pole
Daniel Serra ruined Ford’s day in qualifying banging in a last gasp 1:22.867 in the #68 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE to take the first GTLM pole for the new 488 in IMSA competition, and grab the bragging rights by under a tenth of a second from Ryan Briscoe who had set a 1:22.946 in the #67 Chip Ganassi Ford GT.
“It was a really quick lap; the car was getting better and better each lap,” Serra said. “We put in a lot of laps on the tires. It was me getting comfortable. I was really happy for that lap and for the team. We figured where we had to move and where to go, we got a result that was so fast.”
The second Ford, the #66 qualified by Dirk Muller, took third in GTLM with a lap of 1:23.115.
The top seven qualifiers in the GT Le Mans class were covered by just .704 seconds. Four of the five manufacturers competing in the class were represented.
All Euro GTD Front Row for Riberas Porsche and Nielsen Ferrari
Spain’s Alex Riberas earned his first career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position in GTD qualifying for Sunday afternoon’s two-hour Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Riberas posted a best time of 1:25.775 #23 Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R for Alex Job Racing.
“The guys did a fantastic job with the setup,” Riberas said. “It was fantastic since the first practice. For sure, it was a really good feeling to be on pole. These two hours will be really long, so we need to keep our head down and stay focused. Everybody tells me this is a Porsche track.”
Riberas will be joined on the GTD front row by Christina Nielsen, who qualified a career-best second in class aboard the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 with a best lap of 1:26.497.
Nielsen and co-driver Alessandro Balzan are looking for their second consecutive victory in GTD, as the duo teamed with Jeff Segal to win the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida in March.
2015 class pole setter Patrick Lindsey qualified third in the #73 Park Place Porsche 911 GT3 R with a lap of 1:26.943 in his quest for a repeat win at Mazda Raceway after sharing the 2015 victory with Spencer Pumpelly.
Six different manufacturers were represented in the top-seven positions in GTD qualifying. Porsche took first and third, while Ferrari (second), Lamborghini (fourth), Audi (fifth), Aston Martin (sixth) and BMW (seventh) also were represented.
