Qualifying for the IMSA Six Hours of Watkins Glen was partially abandoned due to heavy rain that struck the track just at the start of LMP2 and LMP3 qualifying, and continued before GTP cars were set to run for pole position.
The grids for the GTP, LMP2, and LMP3 classes will be set by championship points.
That places the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jamineton the pole for the first time in 2023. It’s Porsche’s second straight pole position in the GTD class, albeit by default.
The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, and Jack Aitken will start second, followed by the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 of Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, and Louis Deletraz in third, and the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande in fourth. The #25 BMW M Team RLL Hybrid V8 (Connor de Philippi/Nick Yelloly) will start fifth.
Behind them will be the #7 Penske Porsche (Matt Campbell/Felipe Nasr), the #24 BMW (Philipp Eng/Augusto Farfus), the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura (Tom Blomqvist/Colin Braun), and the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche (Tijmen van der Helm/Mike Rockenfeller).
GTP teams never got the chance to go out for Qualifying. Prior to that, LMP2 and LMP3 qualifying was scrapped after heavy rain showers precipitated a bizarre, multi-car accident just minutes into the session.
There had been only light showers earlier when the GTD cars qualified before, but the rain came down much, much heavier when the green flag waved for the Pro-Am prototype classes.
No message was ever given from Race Control that the track would be declared wet – which would have allowed teams to change to wet tyres – despite the second sector being so visibly drenched in water, that it was only inevitable in these conditions that a car would go off.
It began when the #30 Jr III Motorsports Ligier JS P320 of Ari Balogh hydroplaned out of control into the Toe (turn seven), spun and then hit the tyre barriers. Seconds later, Ben Keating spun around in the same manner, and his #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca LMP2 07 broadsided Balogh’s stranded car. To cap it off, the #17 AWA Duquiene D08 of Anthony Mantella skidded off and hit Keating’s car!
All three drivers got out of their cars, relieved that the outcome was not much worse.
The red flag came out just five minutes into the session and consumed the rest of this phase, well short of the ten minutes of guaranteed green flag time. No car set a representative time, meaning that the LMP2 and LMP3 grids for tomorrow’s race will be set by IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship points – and rendered the prospect of teams being docked lap times for touching the car in the session pointless.
This will put the #11 TDS Racing Oreca of Steven Thomas, Scott Huffaker, and Mikkel Jensen on pole in LMP2, next to the #52 of Keating, Paul-Loup Chatin, and Alex Quinn.
Behind them, the #74 Riley Ligier JS P320 of Gar Robinson, Josh Burdon, and Felipe Fraga starts on pole in LMP3, next to the #13 AWA Duquiene D08 of Orey Fidani, Matt Bell, and Lars Kern.
Before all of the prototype Qualifying was washed away, though, the track was dry enough for the very first phase of Qualifying for the GTD Pro and GTD classes.
In record fashion, Loris Spinelli took pole position in GTD aboard the #78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2. This is the first IMSA pole for Spinelli, and the Forte Racing team in its current guise.
Spinelli, who proved to be a one-lap maestro last year in GT World Challenge America, carried that form over to IMSA. In the final minute of the session, Spinelli ripped off fastest second and third sectors and timed in with a 1:44.430. The time surpasses the previous outright GTD lap record, a 1:44.499 set by Jack Hawksworth in 2018.
That’ll put Spinelli, Misha Goikhberg, and Patrick Liddy on the front row of the combined GTD grid, next to the GTD Pro pole winner, the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Daniel Serra.
Serra and Hawksworth traded top spot in GTD Pro throughout the middle stages, but with three minutes left, Serra not only surpassed Hawksworth, but put the GTD Pro pole out of reach. His best time of 1:44.829 secured his sixth IMSA pole position in just 24 starts, his first since the 2022 Sebring 12 Hours.
This is also Risi Competizione’s first with the new Ferrari 296 GT3.
Another Michelin Endurance Cup specialist team, the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini of Jordan Pepper, qualified second in GTD Pro and third across all GTD cars. He was followed closely by the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz, and the sister #14 Lexus of championship leaders Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat.
Doriane Pin put in an outstanding lap to qualify sixth in the combined GTD grid in her #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini, one position ahead of the championship-leading #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Madison Snow.
Jules Gounon was eighth in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, followed by Jordan Taylor in the #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD, and Patrick Pilet, rounding out the top ten in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Ian James was the fastest GTD Bronze driver, in 11th aboard the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3. But that car’s twin, the #23 GTD Pro Aston Martin, lost its right-rear tyre just minutes into the session and left Ross Gunn unable to set a time for himself.
Images courtesy of IMSA
