Nick Yelloly powered the #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 to the pole position for tomorrow’s IMSA Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix.
In Qualifying, Yelloly took the #93 Acura’s third pole of the year, his second individually, to lead an all-Acura front row of the grid for the six-hour endurance race at Road America.
Yelloly’s best lap of 1:49.233 wouldn’t be beaten despite the persistence of teammate Tom Blomqvist in the #60 MSR Acura. He improved lap after lap, settling in with a 1:49.390 to lock in second on the grid.
“I think going back since the inauguration of this car, it’s been fast here,” Yelloly said. “We knew we’d be competitive, and when we tested here a few weeks ago, the car felt good. It needed a good lap coming together for pole position though, so I’m happy with that. You’re never super confident, but I felt if we had a good lap we could be in the top four after a new tyre run yesterday. I’m happy to be at the front, so you don’t get caught out by the silliness in the first few laps.”
Behind the two Acuras, the Spider-Man-themed #24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 qualified third, after Sheldon van der Linde set a 1:49.597. Louis Delétraz set a 1:49.613 to put the #40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R fourth on the grid.
Then it was Laurens Vanthoor rounding out the top five in the Sunoco 917/30-liveried #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Jack Aitken qualified sixth in the #31 Whelen Cadillac, followed by Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 WTR Cadillac, Ross Gunn in the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, and then Felipe Nasr in the DHL RS Spyder-liveried #7 Penske Porsche.
The GTP grid was completed by the #25 WRT BMW (Marco Wittmann) and the #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche (Kaylen Frederick).
In LMP2, Daniel Goldburg took the pole in United Autosports USA’s #22 ORECA 07-Gibson, his first of the year.
LMP2 qualifying was completed without any major incidents, but with less than five minutes left on the clock, Goldburg set a 1:54.212 to put pole position out of reach, by just over a quarter of a second.
Misha Goikhberg qualified second in the #52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen ORECA (1:54.474), placing him ahead of Jeremy Clarke in the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA, and PJ Hyett in the #99 AO Racing ORECA.
Points leader George Kurtz was fifth-fastest in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA 07-Gibson, even after losing his fastest lap for causing a red flag during the morning practice session.
Goldburg said post-session: “I’ve been super close many times since Daytona last year. We could use some good finishes too at the end of the season here to move up in the standings. What made the difference was pushing a little harder at turn one and the Carousel.”
Harry King lifted AO Racing’s “Rexy” to the pole in GTD Pro in the final minutes, capturing his first career IMSA pole position, and the #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R’s first pole since the 2024 Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Klaus Bachler in the #911 Manthey “Grello” Porsche had the early advantage once teams started setting proper laps. The former AO Racing driver’s best time, a 2:04.283, was deleted due to track limits, but he’d fall back on a 2:04.308 to slot into fifth on the grid.
Then with less than three minutes to go, King set a 2:04.265s to take provisional pole, and then on his final flying lap, he secured the top spot with a 2:04.042.
GTD Pro points leader and defending class winner Neil Verhagen was second in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO (2:04.182), followed by reigning series champion Alexander Sims in the #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, and Max Esterson in the #59 RLL Team McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.
“It’s an emotional feeling,” King said after scoring AO Racing’s 10th IMSA pole. “We came close in Canada to getting pole, so to do it here at the home race for AO was great. The team worked incredibly hard; they put in extra effort for this one, and I could sense it and see it. So to complete the lap and be told we were on pole was emotional.”
Vasser Sullivan Racing was able to prepare its backup #14 Lexus RC F GT3 in time for Jack Hawksworth to turn laps, though his car would have to serve a mechanical black flag not long after taking to the course. It will start from the rear of the GTD Pro grid after having its lap times deleted.
And in GTD, Lilou Wadoux excelled in her first qualifying session at Road America, and won her first career IMSA pole position, which also gave the #21 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo its first pole position of the year.
She becomes the first woman to win the pole for an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race since Katherine Legge grabbed the GTD pole at Laguna Seca in 2018.
Wadoux took the top spot in her Ferrari with a lap of 2:04.688, to knock Winward Racing’s Russell Ward from the top spot. Ward’s best lap of 2:04.753 was struck off the board, however, for failing to adhere to the car’s controlled powertrain parameters, knocking the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO down to sixth on the GTD grid.
Zacharie Robichon and the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, therefore, moved up to second in class, starting ahead of the #068 Car Blanche Aston Martin of Valentin Hasse-Clot. Only two milliseconds separated the two Vantage GT3 Evos’ best lap times.
In fourth place was Casper Stevenson in the #81 DragonSpeed Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, and in fifth was Patrick Gallagher in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
Adam Adelson in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche failed to set a representative time; he was given a mechanical black flag during the 15-minute GTD session.
Tomorrow’s landmark endurance race at Road America goes green at 10:40 AM CT (local time), streaming in over 210 countries on the official IMSA YouTube channel, and on Peacock in the United States.
Images © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
