For the second year in a row, a Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R will start on the pole in the Indianapolis 8 Hour Race.
Last year it was Laurin Heinrich who won the pole for the Pro-Am team from Germany, and this year, Patric Niederhauser stepped up to put the #10 Porsche that he’ll share with Antares Au and Loek Hartog at the front of the 23-car grid for Saturday’s race.
Niederhauser only needed one lap to secure the top spot, but his flying lap of 1:22.564 put it out of reach despite the best efforts of the other nine drivers in the Pole Shootout.
This included the reigning IndyCar Series Champion Alex Palou, who qualified second in the #4 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 by just over a tenth of a second.
Palou had a heart-stopping off at turn four but was able to recover and stayed out of trouble, posting a best time of 1:22.678 to start on the outside of the front row – to the benefit of co-drivers Fabian Schiller and IGTC title contender Luca Stolz.
Heinrich qualified third in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche, which lines up on the second row next to the Shell-liveried #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3, fourth-fastest in the hands of defending race winner Dries Vanthoor.
Arjun Maini was fifth-quickest in the #888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG, ahead of the fastest car in the first Qualifying rounds, the #130 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel.
Philipp Eng, another member of last year’s Indy 8 Hour-winning trio, was seventh in the #28 ST Racing BMW, ahead of Daniel Harper in the black #33 Team WRT BMW.
Rounding out the order were Connor de Phillippi in the #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW, and Trent Hindman in the #85 RS1 Porsche, both of whom went out and set their fastest times early on.
The fifth annual Indianapolis 8 Hour Race starts tomorrow at 12:15 PM EDT (local time).
Images © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
