Louis Delètraz and the #40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R have been the fastest combination all weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. And after winning the pole position for tomorrow’s Monterey SportsCar Championship, they’ll lead an all-Cadillac front row in GTP.
Delètraz, the fastest driver in both practices, and co-driver Jordan Taylor will start up front after the Swiss driver’s excellent qualifying run. He first took provisional pole with a 1:13.592, then found two more quick laps.
He sealed pole position with a 1:13.221, to give Wayne Taylor Racing its first pole since reuniting with Cadillac and GM.
Jack Aitken will start on the front row for the third straight race, qualifying second in the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R with a 1:13.501.
Acura Meyer Shank Racing qualified third and fifth, with the #93 Acura ARX-06 of Nick Yelloly in third, and the #60 of Tom Blomqvist in fifth.
Dries Vanthoor snuck in between them, qualifying fourth in the #24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8. And Ross Gunn was an impressive sixth in the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie.
Delètraz’s teammate Filipe Albuquerque was seventh in the #10 WTR Cadillac, followed by the two Apple-liveried Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s of Kévin Estre and Julien Andlauer, the #25 WRT BMW of Philipp Eng, and the #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche of Tijmen van der Helm.
With GTD Pro back in action for the first time since Sebring, Jack Hawksworth stuck the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 on the pole for the second straight event.
There was drama during the 15 minute GTD Pro time trial: Neil Verhagen had set a monster lap of 1:21.307 early on, but he was deemed to have exceeded track limits. Paul Miller Racing put another set of tyres on the #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO and sent Verhagen out for another run.
Hawksworth, meanwhile, jumped to the top spot, and eventually put the pole out of reach with a 1:12.228. Verhagen, on his second run, left it late, qualifying second with a 1:21.441.
Christopher Mies made the most of the #65 Ford Racing Mustang GT3’s new Evo package, qualifying third, ahead of Harry King in the #77 AO Racing ‘Sketchy’ Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Then Antonio García qualified fifth in the #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, and Sandy Mitchell put the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 within half a second of pole in sixth.
GTD featured a showcase of two second-generation drivers with F1 lineage, but the pole went to Lorenzo Patrese and the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari.
Patrese, the son of former Formula 1 iron man Riccardo, is standing in for regular driver Manny Franco as Conquest Racing’s ‘designated Silver’. He was the class of the field in Qualifying, a step ahead of championship leader Eduardo Barrichello in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 as they each crossed the finish line.
The #34 Ferrari got the pole with a time of 1:21.441, giving Eric Bachelart’s team its first IMSA pole since 2012.
But it wasn’t by much: A late improvement from the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal put the Costa Rican driver within 0.022s of spoiling the run for Patrese.
Barrichello will start third in the #27 Aston Martin ahead of Russell Ward in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, with Benjamin Pedersen completing the top five in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
The 2026 StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship at Laguna Seca starts tomorrow at 1:10 PM PT (local time). It will be streamed live in over 200 countries on IMSA’s official YouTube channel and IMSA.TV, and in the United States on Peacock and NBCSN.
Images © IMSA
