The two cars with a chance of securing the DPi Championship will start the Twelve Hours of Sebring side-by-side after Ricky Taylor in the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05c secured pole position with a lap time of 1:46.874. Taylor was closely followed by Renger Van Der Zande in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, setting up a titanic battle in a ‘winner-take-all’ season finale.
Dane Cameron in the #6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05c ended the session in third. Mazda’s best car was the #55 Mazda RT-24P that Harry Tincknell drove to a fifth-place starting spot. The DPi field is closely matched, though, with the top six within half a second of the leader.
GTLM
In GTLM, Antonio Garcia in the championship-winning #3 Corvette C8.R added even more accolades onto the incredible debut season for the Corvette C8 with another pole position. Garcia’s lap time of 1:55.456 was 0.660 seconds better than anyone else in the class.
“It was a perfect lap. From yesterday, we flipped around the car a little bit. With not as much track time as in years past, qualifying is almost like practice for us, too. We gambled on something different and it seems to be working. I’m happy with that,” Garcia said.
BMW was second and third with the #25 BMW M8 of Conor De Phillippi beating out his teammate Jesse Krohn in the #24 BMW M8 for a spot on the front row of the GTLM gird.
Porsche struggled mightily in this session. Their best car, the #911 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Nick Tandy was 1.384 seconds off the pace of Garcia. With over a third of the race to be run under darkness, Porsche could have their eyes on a car setup more tuned to the finish, though.
The #912 Porsche 911 RSR ended the session last. Neel Jani was 2.318 seconds off the pole time.
GTD
In GTD, Jan Heylen scored pole position in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. He was 0.702 seconds quicker than the rest of the field.
Andrew Davis in the #30 Team Hardpoint Audi R8 LMS GT3. The #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC-F GT3 of Aaron Telitz rounded out the top three in GTD. The #16 Porsche and the #14 Lexus are both chasing the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX of Mario Farnbacher and Matt McMurry for the championship.
The #86 Acura had a stellar weekend at Laguna Seca that vaulted them to a seven-point lead in the title race. Shinya Michimi, the team’s endurance driver, qualified the car in eighth.
LMP2
Patrick Kelly in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07 earned yet another pole position in LMP2. Kelly’s outlandish pace in qualifying this year has been remarkable to watch. His best lap time in this session was a 1:51.373, 1.774 seconds quicker than the next best time.
Naveen Rao in the #51 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07 was second. Don Yount in the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA 07 bested Joh Farano in the #8 Tower Motorsports by Starworks ORECA 07 to round out the top three.
