It took over two and a half more hours for IMSA qualifying to commence following a lengthy delay due to track repairs, but under beautiful “golden hour” conditions, it only took 15 minutes for GTP championship leader Jack Aitken to put the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R on the pole for tomorrow’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.
On his second flying lap of the 15-minute GTP qualifying session, Aitken set a blistering time of 1:31.284 to capture his second pole of the 2026 season, and the third of the year for the Action Express Racing-run Cadillac Whelen car, after Earl Bamber got the pole in Detroit.
Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist qualified second in the #60 Acura ARX-06, posting a 1:31.481, less than two-tenths slower than Aitken’s pole time.
Louis Deletraz fell just six thousandths of a second short of making it an all-Cadillac front row, qualifying third in the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac (1:31.487); he’ll instead share row two with the #93 MSR Acura of Renger van der Zande in fourth (1:31.524).
Laurin Heinrich handled qualifying duties in the #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963. He set a 1:31.704 to go fifth-quickest after his final lap of 1:31.635 was deleted; this was the consequence of the #5 JDC-Miller Porsche bringing out a red flag earlier in the day during the second free practice session.
Dries Vanthoor qualified sixth in the leading #24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8, ahead of the #10 WTR Cadillac (Filipe Albuquerque), the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 (Laurens Vanthoor), and the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie (Ross Gunn).
Following extensive repairs to the kerbs at the Inner Loop chicane, Race Control would take a much more relaxed stance on enforcing track limits at the high-speed sequence, though prototype drivers would have been less inclined to ride the kerbs in any case.
To lead the first IMSA LMP2 qualifying session in nearly 100 days, Jeremy Clarke took his second pole position of the year in the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson.
Clarke fended off strong competition from AO Racing’s PJ Hyett, who like Heinrich, needed two rapid laps to offset a penalty for causing a red flag in the second practice session earlier today. Hyett’s best lap of 1:35.216 was struck off the board, but Hyett was able to fall back on a 1:35.288 that he set earlier to stay second.
But Clarke left no doubt who’d go ‘P1’ when he reeled off a 1:35.124, better than Hyett’s fastest valid lap and the rest of the LMP2 field.
Daniel Goldburg put the #22 United Autosports USA ORECA third on the grid, followed by George Kurtz in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car, and Misha Goikhberg in the #52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen car rounded out the top five.
Jack Hawksworth captured his third GTD Pro pole of the season aboard the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3.
Neil Verhagen in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO took the early advantage when he set a 1:44.131 on his second flying lap, but Hawksworth would put together two rapid laps, under the one-minute, 44-second barrier, to snatch the top spot away.
Both Vasser Sullivan Racing cars are carrying the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing name on their respective entries, as a tribute to IndyCar Series team owner Dennis Reinbold, who passed away earlier this month.
Hawksworth’s best time was a 1:43.701, and it’ll be an all-English front row in GTD Pro after Harry King set a 1:43.914 to put the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R second on the grid.
Verhagen improved to a 1:44.089 to consolidate third for the #1 Paul Miller BMW, followed by Christopher Mies in the #65 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo, James Calado in the #033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, and Max Esterson in the #59 RLL Team McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. This put six different manufacturers in the first three rows.
Championship leader Nicky Catsburg was only able to qualify tenth in the #4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, two positions behind teammate Antonio García in the #3 Corvette.
And finally, the GTD grid will be set by 2026 Teams’ Championship points after Russell Ward crashed and brought out a red flag only six minutes into their 15-minute session.
Ward clipped too much of the entry kerb into the Bus Stop, lost control, and crashed the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO head-on at the exit of the chicane.
Since the ten-minute threshold for guaranteed minimum green flag time hadn’t been met before the chequered flag, qualifying was annulled, which would put the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO of Eduardo Barrichello, Tom Gamble, and Zacharie Robichon on the pole ahead of the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW.
The #12 Vasser Sullivan/Dreyer & Reinbold Lexus will start third; Frankie Montecalvo had set the fastest lap before the red flag (1:44.906).
Images © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
