The grid is set for tomorrow’s Sahlen’s Six Hours Of The Glen and it will be the #40 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 that will start from pole. A sublime run from Louis Deletraz in Qualifying this afternoon made the difference on the eve of the third IMSA Endurance Cup race of the season.
The Swiss managed to fend off the challenge of both Cadillacs in the session, his 1:32.209 set with seven minutes to go good enough to edge it and win the Motul Pole Award by 0.038.
Renger van der Zande took the second spot on the front row in the #01 Ganassi Cadillac V-Series.R with a 1:32.247, which was briefly good enough to put him provisional pole before Deletraz completed his hot lap.
“I really enjoy qualifying, with low fuel and fresh tyres with these prototypes. It’s great for the points too,” Deletraz said.
Jack Aitken in the Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R pushed hard and improved on his final tour. But his 1:32.479 wasn’t good enough to climb the order into the top two.
It was however good enough to keep Phil Hanson at bay in the JDC-Miller 963, which emerged as the fastest of the four Porsche in the session.
Penske’s factory cars could only manage fifth and sixth with the #6 the quicker of the two.
Further down the order the #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 will start from ninth on the grid for its second IMSA appearance tomorrow.
There was one key car missing from the GTP pack, that being the #25 BMW Team RLL M Hybrid V8 which crashed out of Free Practice 2.
The impact was severe at Turn 1 and has since forced the team to source a spare car for tomorrow. As a result, the team now finds itself in a race against time to prep the car in time to take the start.
Marshall Pruett has reported that the team is sending members of its crew to Indianapolis to “split a spare car in half, then load the tub into a truck and drive it 10ish hours from Indy to WGI and start the build process.”
The sister M Hybrid V8 failed to feature at the sharp end, with Philipp Eng putting the car eighth fastest. It was however, extremely tight in GTP, with all 10 cars that took part getting within seven and a half tenths of the pole time.
Prior to the GTP session, PJ Hyett put in a stunning performance in LMP2 Qualifying to put his #99 AO Racing ‘Spike’ ORECA on pole.
The American’s 1:35.925 came after multiple improvements and created a gap of almost seven-tenths on his final effort.
“These are tracks I dreamt of driving on someday, these dreams keep coming true and it’s hard to describe how amazing it is,” Hyett said after his head-turning performance. “Tomorrow is going to be a beast with the weather, it’s going to be a test of everyone’s fitness.”
Hyett’s final flyer at the death of the session was a near half-second improvement and came amid a flurry of quick laps from United Autosports’ Daniel Goldburg and Steven Thomas, who battled hard for spaces on the front row.
In the end, it would be Goldburg in the #22 United example that would take second, with Thomas third by just two thousandths of a second for TDS Racing.
Inter Europol will start fourth, Ben Keating in the #2 United ORECA took fifth.
GT Qualifying saw Risi Competizione claim pole. The longstanding Ferrari customer team, which won the Rolex 24 Hours back in January, will lead the GTD Pro and GTD runners across the line at the start tomorrow after a 1:44.203 from Daniel Serra.
The Brazillian claimed the top spot with six minutes left in the session with a 1:44.227 before improving his time to seal it a few minutes later.
“On this track, track position is important because it’s difficult to overtake here. It’s good to start on pole, the car was mega and we made the correct changes after the morning session,” said Serra to IMSA Radio after claiming his seventh IMSA pole.
Alongside the Risi Ferrari on the front row will be the #3 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R, driven by Alex Sims in the session.
The British ace’s best time was a 1:44.317, set just before he suffered a left-rear puncture and had to drive back to the paddock with the tyre carcass detached.
“Under the circumstances, I’m pretty happy,” Sims said. “That was really our last chance of doing that lap time because the tyres were just starting to lose their peak. Once they’re gone here, that’s it; there’s no chance of setting any representative times.
“The gap ahead of me closed too much on the first lap then one of the Ferraris slowed on the second lap and I thought that was it. Thankfully the third lap was clear, and then we had the puncture on the last lap.
“You never know what it’s going to be like on low fuel and in qualifying trim, but it felt really nice and was a pleasure to drive.”
The top five times in the session were all set by GTD Pro runners.
Ross Gunn ended up third in the #23 Heart of Racing Vantage with a 1:44.387, set early in the session before the team opted to park up.
The #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus took fourth, with the #4 Corvette completing the top five and adding to the Pratt Miller team’s strong showing.
In GTD, it was the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus that ran fastest after Parker Thompson set a 1:44.642 to put him in amongst the horde of Pro cars.
The #12 was the only GTD car that ended up in the top 10, taking sixth on the timing screens.
The #023 Triarsi Ferrari came closest to the Lexus, with a 1:45.242 to go 12th in the combined times, while the #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes took third.
“This is just the start, the team gave me a rocket. Lexus loves Watkins Glen, we love it back. Hats off to the 12 guys, momentum is coming to us. Nobody remembers the pole winner though, we have a job to do tomorrow,” a jubilant Thompson told the broadcast.
“The GTD Pro field likes to forget we are in a different class, so the higher up the field we are the easier our life is.”
Tomorrow’s six-hour race is set to begin at 11:10 am tomorrow local time in New York.
Images courtesy of Jack Webster
