With a new GTP course record, Renger van der Zande and Acura Meyer Shank Racing won the pole for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.
It’ll be van der Zande, Nick Yelloly, and rookie Kakunoshin ‘Kaku’ Ohta starting up front in the red #93 Acura ARX-06, after the Dutch driver obliterated the 2024 lap record with a best time of 1:31.558 on his first flying lap.
Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, and Frederik Vesti will start second in the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R; Aitken had two quick laps towards the end, but his best lap of 1:31.845 was still less than three-tenths away from unseating the #93 Acura for pole.
The #60 MSR Acura of Colin Braun qualified third, as the top three surpassed Louis Deletraz’s previous course record when he won the pole in an Acura last year.
Now with Cadillacs, the blue #10 Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R of Ricky Taylor was fourth, followed by Deletraz in the silver #40 car, in fifth.
The two Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8s set the early pace in the 15-minute GTP qualifying session, but the best times from Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor would tumble down to sixth and seventh in the final classification.
Mathieu Jaminet was eighth-quickest in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, 1.7 seconds off the top.
Ross Gunn was a surprising ninth in the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie – the still-fresh V12 Valkyrie outqualified the other three Porsche 963s, including the championship-leading #7 Penske Porsche of Felipe Nasr down in tenth.
Romain Grosjean was 11th in the returning #63 Lamborghini Squadra Corse SC63, within two seconds of the top time.
Hot off the heels of their Le Mans class win in LMP2 Pro-Am, PJ Hyett, AO Racing, and Spike the LMP2 Dragon blew away the competition in LMP2 qualifying.
Hyett won the LMP2 pole position, setting a 1:35.878 on his second flying lap in the #99 AO Racing ORECA 07-Gibson to put the top spot out of reach from TDS Racing and Steven Thomas.
Remarkably, it’s Hyett’s first pole of the season in IMSA – and even more remarkably, it happened after an engine failure towards the end of Practice 2, and then a successful engine change in just four hours of frenetic work.
Thomas would get within two-tenths of Hyett but would settle for second-fastest; he’ll line up ahead of the two United Autosports cars, the #22 of Daniel Goldburg in third and the #2 of Nick Boulle in fourth.
Tobias Lutke was a surprising fifth in the #18 Era Motorsport car, ahead of Jeremy Clarke in the #43 Inter Europol Competition car.
Pfaff Motorsports’ red plaid #9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 has been quickest so far in GTD PRO in every session, up to and including Andrea Caldarelli’s pole-winning effort today.
The Italian did just enough to displace Dan Harper from provisional pole with his first flying lap of 1:44.718. That would have been enough for Caldarelli to snag the top spot, but he found further improvements every time he circulated – eventually landing with a 1:44.595, to give Pfaff its first pole as a Lamborghini customer team.
Harper in the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO tried one more push with a new set of tyres, but he couldn’t improve from his 1:44.737 and held on to his outside front-row start on the GT grid.
Nicky Catsburg qualified third in the #4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, barely edging out the white #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa in fourth.
Aaron Telitz qualified fifth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, ahead of the #3 Corvette of Alexander Sims; GTD PRO points leader Klaus Bachler was only ninth in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, out of ten cars.
Zacharie Robichon gave the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 its first GTD pole of the season.
Robichon was the first GT driver to eclipse the one minute, 45 second barrier this weekend when he set a 1:44.788 halfway through the session.
Only Alec Udell in the #36 DXDT Racing Corvette eclipsed the 1:45s barrier with him, qualifying in second place.
Daniel Morad and Russell Ward will make up an all-Mercedes second row in GTD; Morad was third in the #32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, ahead of GTD Championship leader Ward in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Parker Thompson in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, Lorenzo Patrese in the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari, and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari followed, in fifth through seventh.
Of note, Adam Adelson was 16th in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche, carrying the Chip Hart Racing livery from F1: The Movie ahead of its release next week.
The Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen starts tomorrow at 12:10 PM ET (local time), airing in over 200 countries on the official IMSA YouTube channel and IMSA.TV, and in the United States live on NBC and Peacock.
Images © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
