Hannah Grisham captured a historic pole position for today’s LP Building Solutions 120, round five of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season at Watkins Glen International. The race goes green this afternoon at 1:05 PM ET, and streams on Peacock and IMSA’s Official YouTube channel, ad-free courtesy of Michelin.
Grisham is the first woman to win an overall pole in nearly 20 years. Valerie Limoges was the first and last to do so, driving a Ford Mustang GT in the Grand Sport (GS) at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2007.
She’s also the first woman to win pole in the series since Taylor Hagler did so at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2020, in the Touring Car (TCR) class.
Grisham follows Limoges, Hagler and Sarah Cattaneo as past female polesitters in the series history. Cattaneo’s three career poles all came in the Street Tuner (ST) class.
Grisham is one of seven women competing in today’s Michelin Pilot Challenge race, including her co-driver Hannah Greenemeier in the #26 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 EVO. She set a best time of 1:53.839 seconds around Watkins Glen.
The lap is also a track record, eclipsing the previous mark held by Devin Jones of 1:54.077 in the June 2019 race, the first year where Michelin served as both the tire and entitlement partner of the series.
“It’s really exciting I got pole in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge overall; my first overall pole in this car,” Grisham said. “First in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. It means a lot to get that token under my name, but we want to win today and that’s the main priority.
“I’m excited to prove to myself and everyone else that I could do it. Big thanks to all the guys at the shop prepping the car before every race; also here on the race weekends. Phil, our engineer who we’ve been working with. The Heart of Racing and Aston Martin, everyone giving us the opportunity to be here. For Hannah and I to race together has been an amazing experience in the IMSA paddock so far!”
The most recent female race winner in the series was Hagler, a two-time Touring Car (TCR) champion, at VIRginia International Raceway, in 2022. Sheena Monk is the last woman to win in GS and overall, which happened at Road America in 2020.
The seven women racing today include Grisham, Greenemeier, Samantha Tan, Madeline Stewart, Aurora Straus, Maddie Aust and Riley Pegram. The first five are in GS and Aust and Pegram are in TCR.
Aust enters Watkins Glen fresh off her first IMSA podium, finishing third at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course earlier this month in the #98 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR with Mark Wilkins.
Grisham will lead the #60 KOHR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 of Evan Slater and Mike Skeen to green in GS. With the first Toyota, BMW and Mercedes-AMG behind them, five manufacturers are in the top five starting positions.
In TCR, LP Montour captured the pole in the #93 MMG Honda Civic FL5 TCR at a time of 1:54.673. He will share that car with Karl Wittmer. The duo won last time at Mid-Ohio and also won here at Watkins Glen last year.
Montour’s lap is also a TCR lap record, eclipsing the previous mark of 1:55.096 set in June 2023.
The #77 Stallion Motorsports w/GOU Cupra Leon VZ TCR starts second, in the hands of Raphael Reis and Celso Neto – after the #5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Honda was sent to the back of the grid for failing post-qualifying tech.
Images © IMSA
