Felipe Nasr recorded his fastest lap in Saturday’s qualifying session at the perfect time, right before his car spun in the rain.
Nasr won the Motul Pole Award for Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America with a lap of 2 minutes, 7.919 seconds (113.921 mph). On the following lap, with rain increasing in intensity, Nasr’s #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R spun in Turn 5.
Nasr kept the car fired and moving after the spin, preventing his fast lap from being disallowed for bringing out a red-flag stoppage of the session. As a result, Nasr and co-driver Pipo Derani will benefit from pole position at the head of the 35-car field when the 2-hour, 40-minute race begins at 2:40 p.m. ET on Sunday
The qualifying session quickly turned treacherous as the rain increased. Five drivers slid off course, including Ben Keating, who won the pole position in LMP2.
The trick, Nasr said, was finding grip while avoiding the lack of it.
“If you put a wheel in the wrong place, you just feel there is no grip there,” Nasr said. “That’s why at the beginning I was kind of feeling for the grip that was available. The window of that grip was pretty narrow. I found the limit. I spun and got going again.”
Like Nasr, Keating posted his best lap (2:18.511, 105.210 mph) before spinning. The #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 he shares with Mikkel Jensen will start first in LMP2 and seventh overall.
Sensing the session might end earlier than planned, Keating put down his best number early.
“There was a lot more rain on the back half (of the circuit) then there was on the front straight,” Keating said. “I anticipated that we would probably have a red flag, that we probably would not be able to finish qualifying. I wanted to get a really good lap in early.”
Nasr’s effort was timely for the #31 team, which is attempting to chase down DPi points co-leaders Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, whose #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 will start second after Taylor’s qualifying lap of 2:08.677 (113.250 mph).
Nasr and Derani combined to win the most recent IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race for the DPi class July 2 at Watkins Glen International, closing to within 114 points of Taylor and Albuquerque.
“It’s always great to keep that momentum rolling,” Nasr said. “It was great to have our first win of the season at Watkins – in pretty tricky conditions as well. I guess that was good practice for here.”
Oliver Jarvis was third fastest in DPi with a lap of 2:08.716 (113.216 mph) in the #55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda DPi he co-drives with Harry Tincknell.
In LMP2, Steven Thomas secured the second starting position with a lap of 2:19.941 (104.135 mph) in the #11 WIN Autosport ORECA he co-drives with Tristan Vautier. John Farano and Gabriel Aubry secured the third starting position behind Farano’s lap of 2:24.176 (101.076 mph) in the #8 Tower Motorsport ORECA.
For all of his multitude of accomplishments in IMSA racing, Jordan Taylor had never claimed a pole position at Road America. Until now.
In difficult conditions on Saturday afternoon, middling between wet and drying, Taylor guided the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to the top qualifying spot in GT Le Mans (GTLM) for the IMSA SportsCar Weekend race on Sunday. While it was the 19th pole position of Taylor’s stellar career, it was his first at Road America, a favourite track among nearly every driver.
Taylor was pleased to finally add qualifying honours at the high-speed, 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course to his lengthy list of achievements. Especially in the treacherous conditions, with the track dampened by rain just before the session began.
“It feels good,” Taylor said. “It’s great to be back at Road America, it’s one of our favourite events of the year. It’s Corvette Racing’s 20th time here, so it’s special to be part of that kind of history at this track.
“Yeah, it was definitely a tricky session with in-between conditions. We had a wet session yesterday, dry this morning and almost kind of in the middle for qualifying.”
Taylor’s top lap of 2 minutes, 20.979 seconds (103.368 mph) bested teammate Nick Tandy in the #4 Corvette by 0.627 seconds. Taylor and co-driver Antonio Garcia, the defending Road America class winners, will lead the GTLM field to green ahead of Tandy and Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette.
Taylor, seeking his 25th career win on Sunday, said the balance of risk versus reward is especially stressful in conditions like Saturday. He said Friday evening’s practice in wetter conditions helped the team gauge how to approach qualifying.
“Heading into qualifying, we had some confidence to know what to expect with tire pressures and how to warm up the tire,” he said. “It was a little bit drier than yesterday with not as much standing water. Getting the lap time in early when the tire was at its peak is what got us the pole.
“We almost replicated the lap at the end, but I think that was just figuring out where to go in the wet. The C8.R was consistent and it was strong. It’s another 1-2 in qualifying for Corvette Racing, so that bodes well for us in the race no matter if the race is wet or dry.”
In LMP3, Dan Goldburg bumped Gar Robinson from the top spot with a final lap of 2:19.106 (104.760 mph) to win the pole position. The #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Goldburg co-drives with Rasmus Lindh will start first in class and 11th overall in Sunday’s race.
“It was all about feeling for the grip and exploring and seeing where you can find that grip and get the power down,” Goldburg said after notching his first career WeatherTech Championship pole. “The conditions were changing on parts of the track every lap. One lap you could get more out of one corner, and the next lap it was a different corner that you could get more out of. It was quite challenging and ever-changing.”
Robinson, who leads the LMP3 driver standings, had one final lap to regain the top spot. He improved his time to 2:19.419 but failed to knock Goldburg from the No. 1 position. Instead, the #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier that Robinson co-drives with Felipe Fraga will start second in class, just ahead of the #36 Andretti Autosport Ligier shared by Jarett Andretti and Oliver Askew.
Wisconsin native Aaron Telitz put the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 on the GT Daytona (GTD) pole position for the second straight year at Road America.
In the Motul Pole Award session that began in light rain, Telitz turned a 2:07.195 lap (114.570 mph) early into the 15-minute segment, then parked his car as the precipitation increased. No one else eclipsed Telitz’s time in the deteriorating conditions, so he held on for the fifth Motul Pole Award of his WeatherTech Championship career and second this season.
Saturday’s effort came a year after Telitz collected his first career pole at Road America. He and co-driver Jack Hawksworth followed that up with a third-place finish in the race.
“Home track vibes are definitely happening this weekend and last year, too,” Telitz said. “Our Lexus RC F GT3 car was feeling really good out there in those mixed conditions. It was not easy, the rain was coming down a little harder on the backside of the course than the front side, so not easy to do, but happy to be starting from pole tomorrow.”
With Sunday’s forecast calling for another strong chance of rain, Telitz said he’s ready no matter the conditions.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the most enjoyable thing (driving in the rain),” he said. “I obviously like driving in the dry here at Road America better, but it’ll be fun whatever it is tomorrow.”
Trent Hindman qualified second in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R with a lap of 2:07.862 (113.972 mph). Hindman will share the car with Patrick Long on Sunday.
In the second GTD qualifying session to earn season championship and IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup points, Laurens Vanthoor was fastest at 2:21.855 (102.729 mph) in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche, 0.936 seconds ahead of Bill Auberlen in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.
