The #29 Turner BMW M4 GT3 EVO set the fastest average lap time in three-stage Qualifying for the Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour, and leads the group of ten cars that will advance to the Superpole session later this evening.
Connor De Phillippi and Robby Foley led the second and third legs of Qualifying; De Phillippi was the first driver this weekend to break the 83-second barrier with a lap of 1:22.938. Meanwhile, to close things out, Foley led the third leg with a 1:22.830.
The average between De Phillippi, Foley, and Justin Rothberg was a 1:23.460.
Second-fastest overall and fastest of the many Pro-Am cars was the #69 Archangel Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 EVO of Todd Coleman, Aaron Telitz, and Tom Fleming; Telitz and Fleming each finished in the top three in their respective qualifying sessions, Fleming set a 1:22.918 in Q3.
The #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (Lin Hodenius/Luca Stolz/Álex Palou) was third, followed by the #6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 Evo (Scott Dollahite/Alex Sedgwick/Christopher Mies) in fourth. Mies was fourth-quickest in the final leg, but suffered a brake failure on the frontstretch headed into turn one. He was able to bring the car safely to a stop, and Dollahite Racing is optimistic that the car will be fixed in time for Superpole.
In fifth was the #12 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo (Matías Pérez Companc/Nicklas Nielsen/Frederik Schandorff), followed by the GT World Challenge America championship-leading #34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG (Michai Stephens/Mikaël Grenier/Maxime Martin, and the #32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Kyle Washington/Riccardo Pera/Ayhancan Güven) in seventh. Güven’s best lap of 1:22.872 was second in Q3, more importantly, it put the #32 GMG Porsche into the Superpole field.
Rounding out the group of ten cars advancing are the #28 RS1 Porsche (Danny Dyszelski/Daan Arrow/Jan Heylen), after Dyszelski had a great run to lead Q1, as well as the #27 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG (Jason Daskalos/Wyatt Brichacek/Philip Ellis), and the last car to get in, the #8 McCann Racing Porsche (Michael McCann Jnr/Zachary Vanier/Alessio Picariello).
Wright Motorsports’ two Porsches ended up on the wrong side of the bump line: Its Pro-Am #31 car was only 11th, while the #120 Pro class car was bumped out of the top 10 after having the eighth-fastest average after two legs. Instead, the #120 car starts 14th, behind the #14 Riley Technologies BMW and #86 High Class Racing Porsche.
Further down the order, the #99 Random Vandals Racing BMW with Marcus and Hampus Ericsson and Derek DeBoer qualified 17th, while the #11 Mad Joker Racing Mercedes-AMG (Marc Austin/Ben Keating/Peter Dempsey) will start 22nd and best of the three Am class cars.
COMBINED QUALIFYING RESULTS >>>
The start of Qualifying was delayed 30 minutes due to a problem with the official timing system at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which had also caused the second leg of GT4 America Qualifying to be cancelled.
Superpole begins this evening at approximately 6:10 PM ET (local time).
Images © SRO Motorsports America
