Matt Campbell won the pole for the IMSA Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, putting the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 on pole position for IMSA’s long-anticipated return to the Brickyard.
Campbell, who recorded the top time in both Free Practice sessions this weekend, had been the man to beat all weekend and set an impeccable standard during GTP qualifying. He was the first driver to break the one-minute, 14-second barrier with a lap of 1:13.871 just halfway into the 20-minute session.
The Australian would find another two-tenths and clinch pole position with a 1:13.672 for his second GTP pole of the season, his third in all IMSA categories.
That will give Campbell and Felipe Nasr a front-row start alongside the sister #6 Penske Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy; Jaminet also broke the sub-1’14 barrier with a time of 1:13.824. Call it “home cooking” or just “Penske Perfection,” the Penske-run factory Porsche team has locked out the front row at Penske Group-owned Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
IndyCar-bound Tom Blomqvist qualified third in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, with a best lap of 1:13.864 – enough to beat a previous Grand-Am winner at the Speedway, Sebastien Bourdais, who was fourth in the gold #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R.
Ricky Taylor recovered from a spin to qualify fifth in the championship-leading #10 WTRAndretti/Konica Minolta Acura, ahead of the two BMW M Hybrid V8s of Philipp Eng in car #24, and Nick Yelloly in the #25.
Pipo Derani could only manage eighth in the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac. Gianmaria Bruni was ninth-fastest in the #59 Proton Competition Porsche, with Tijmen van der Helm bringing up the rear of the ten-car GTP grid in the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche – all cars separated by less than a second.
Paul Miller Racing’s run of dominance continues in the GTD class. Madison Snow put the #1 Paul Miller BMW M4 GT3 on pole position – his third straight GTD class pole position, enough to clinch the Motul Pole Award for the 2023 season.
His lap time of 1:23.075 was the fastest outright time in the combined GTD qualifying session ahead of all five GTD Pro cars.
Snow and co-driver Bryan Sellers now have a 385-point lead in the season-long GTD Class Championship standings, ahead of the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Roman de Angelis/Marco Sørensen). If the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW finishes ahead of the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin tomorrow, Snow and Sellers will clinch the GTD title.
They have even less work to do to wrap up the WeatherTech Sprint Cup title tomorrow: Just starting the race will be enough to clinch it with what is now a 239-point lead (and only 210 points available to gain in this final race of the year)!
Klaus Bachler won his second GTD Pro pole of the year aboard the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, with a time of 1:23.140 – 0.065 seconds behind the best lap recorded by Snow. He and Patrick Pilet will share the front row of a 22-car combined GTD grid.
Jules Gounon qualified second in GTD Pro aboard the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, with not much separating him from Jack Hawksworth in the championship-leading #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, and Alex Riberas in the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Mikaël Grenier was second-fastest in the GTD category aboard the #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes, followed by Indiana native Patrick Gallagher in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW. Both drivers surpassed the best time from Jordan Taylor, who was fifth-fastest of five in GTD Pro driving the #3 Corvette Racing C8.R GTD.
The #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO of Misha Goikhberg, and the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes of Russell Ward, will make up the rest of the GTD overall top ten.
Eighth-fastest in GTD standard and fastest of the Bronze-rated drivers was Bob Akin Award points leader Brendan Iribe in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.
In a disrupted pro-am prototype qualifying session, top gentleman racer Ben Keating won the LMP2 pole position in his #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca LMP2 07. It’s Keating’s third pole of the 2023 IMSA season, and his first since the Sebring 12 Hours.
Keating was just 0.002 seconds ahead of title rival George Kurtz, when a red flag came out halfway into the 15-minute session for LMP2 and LMP3 class prototypes. LMP3 championship leader Gar Robinson spun off and crashed into the tyre barriers in turn six. Robinson was able to get out of his stricken #74 Riley Ligier JS P320 without apparent injury.
Even though he and Josh Burdon will start last in class, Robinson will still maintain a healthy 244-point lead in the LMP3 standings.
Once the red flag was lifted, three minutes were put on the clock to allow Keating, Kurtz, and the field to post at least one more hot lap. Keating didn’t waste his chance and improved to a 1:17.950, while Kurtz could not improve on his previous time of 1:18.390.
Kurtz and Ben Hanley will start second in the #04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca, followed by the two TDS Racing cars, the #11 (Steven Thomas/Mikkel Jensen) ahead of the #35 (Rodrigo Sales/Giedo van der Garde).
On a significant week of change on the horizon for Charlotte-based Jr III Racing, its two Ligier JS P320s finished 1-2 in LMP3 qualifying. The 1-2 was led by young Indian-American driver Bijoy Garg in the #29, who got his first pole in the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship in just his second race.
Garg, who leads the IMSA VP Racing Challenge LMP3 standings, outqualified Indy NXT Rookie of the Year Nolan Siegel in the #30 car by just under half a second. Both cars were at least a second clear from the rest of the LMP3 field.
Orey Fidani was third in the #13 AWA Duquiene D08, more than a second and a half behind the pole-winning #29 Ligier of Garg and Guilherme de Oliveira.
Images © Jake Galstad, Michael Levitt / IMSA
