After four straight pole positions for the Cadillac V-Series.R, Nick Tandy and the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 have won the pole for Saturday’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic – the first IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship round to be held at the new Detroit Renaissance Centre circuit.
In fact, both Penske Porsches locked out the front row – Tandy took pole position with a best lap of 1:05.390, while GTP Championship co-leader Dane Cameron set a 1:05.514 in the #7 Penske Porsche. It was Tandy’s 13th career IMSA pole.
Those lap times came in with just under three minutes left in GTP qualifying – and just as Pipo Derani spun his #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R at the exit of turn five. Derani’s car ended up perpendicular to the narrow section of Bates Street and blocked the track, leading to a session-ending Red Flag and the loss of Derani’s two fastest laps.
Derani and co-driver Jack Aitken will start from the rear of the ten-car GTP pack tomorrow, with 100 minutes of racing ahead of them.
Laguna Seca polesitter Sébastien Bourdais made a late improvement but the golden yellow #01 Cadillac could only manage third-fastest, ahead of the two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06es in fourth and fifth – led by the blue #10 of Filipe Albuquerque, ahead of the red #40 of Jordan Taylor.
Philipp Eng, who set the fastest time in Practice 2 earlier this morning, qualified sixth in the #24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8. Bent Viscaal was a solid seventh in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche, ahead of the #25 BMW of Nick Yelloly, and the #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche of Tijmen van der Helm.
Mirroring the Porsche front row sweep in GTP, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports locked out the front row in GTD Pro to the delight of Corvette Racing’s supporters and the title sponsor of the event.
After Nicky Catsburg won the pole in Laguna Seca, this time it was Antonio Garcia’s turn to lead the way in the #3 Pratt Miller Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Garcia traded fastest times with the #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner for most of the 15-minute session.
With four minutes left, Garcia wrestled provisional pole away with a 1:09.458, and improved over successive laps before finishing with a 1:09.092 that he set at the chequered flag, to take his 14th career IMSA pole position.
Milner, who set the fastest time in Practice, was second-quickest on a 1:09.428.
Jack Hawksworth qualified third in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, ahead of the GTD Pro points leader Seb Priaulx in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R – now sporting a gold fang in honour of Rexy’s first IMSA victory last time out!
Daniel Serra was fifth-fastest in the #35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, which was called up to GTD Pro on a one-off basis at Detroit.
The #64 Ford Mulitmatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 of Harry Tincknell was the faster of the two Fords adorned in their special Champions’ Spirit livery, in seventh place.
The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic begins tomorrow at 3:10 PM EDT (local time), following the conclusion of IndyCar Series qualifying.
Images © Josh Tons, Brett Farmer / IMSA
