BMW’s streak of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole positions was broken on the streets of Detroit, at the hands of Acura, Meyer Shank Racing, and Nick Yelloly.
After four straight poles from the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, this time it was Yelloly in the #93 Acura ARX-06 that claimed the pole for tomorrow’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic.
It appeared that BMW M Team RLL’s pole run would continue after some fast laps from the #25 of Sheldon van der Linde, but Yelloly had other plans. With four minutes left, Yelloly snatched the top spot away from van der Linde with a 1:06.276.
The Brit gained more time as he continued to circulate – to a 1:06.051, a 1:05.981, and then finally a 1:05.762 at the chequered flag.
Tom Blomqvist was second-fastest in the blue #60 Acura, setting a 1:05.908, the only other driver below 66 seconds on their fastest lap. It secures an all-Acura front row, ahead of the two BMWs.
Van der Linde’s best time of 1:06.078 was good enough for third, ahead of the #24 BMW of Dries Vanthoor, whose pole streak ended with a fourth-place run.
The two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s locked out row three, the #6 of Matt Campbell in fifth, then the #7 of Nick Tandy, the championship co-leader – despite Tandy losing his best lap from bringing out a red flag in the preceding practice session.
Similarly, the three Cadillacs qualified seventh through ninth – led by the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R of Jack Aitken in seventh, then the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque.
In front of General Motors’ global headquarters, Ford Multimatic Motorsports locked out the front row in GTD PRO.
Sebastian Priaulx will start up front in the #64 Ford Mustang GT3, with Christopher Mies at his side in the #65 Ford Mustang GT3. Priaulx took provisional pole with a 1:10.922. Mies improved to a 1:11.251 to secure second, just as an incident behind him brought out a red flag with about five minutes left.
It was a disappointing end for DragonSpeed super-sub Rasmus Lindh: Lindh clipped the wall coming around the exit of turn three, fishtailed and spun into the left-side wall. His car stopped, brought out a red flag, and the #81 Ferrari 296 GT3 will have to start from the back of the GTD PRO grid tomorrow.
While the session was extended to achieve the minimum guaranteed green flag time, with only time for one lap, it didn’t allow for enough time for improvements from any driver – certainly none that would break up Ford’s front-row lockout.
Jack Hawksworth was third-fastest in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, then the two Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, the #1 of Neil Verhagen and the #48 of Dan Harper, qualified fourth and fifth.
Tommy Milner was sixth-fastest in the #4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, not where he’d hoped to be after both Corvettes led 1-2 in the preceding practice sessions. After losing his fastest lap because of the penalty for bringing out a red flag in Practice 2, Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette was only ninth.
Championship leader Klaus Bachler will start eighth in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, behind the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini, which also had its fastest time deleted due to causing a red flag in practice.
UPDATE: The #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus has been moved to the rear of the GTD PRO grid after technical inspection found that the car did not meet minimum ground clearance requirements.
There will be a 20-minute final practice on Saturday morning from 10:35~10:55 AM ET, before the 100-minute race starts that afternoon at 3:40 PM ET (local time), airing in most countries on the IMSA YouTube channel and IMSA.TV, and within the United States on Peacock.
Images © Jake Galstad, Geoff Miller / IMSA / Lumen Digital Agency
