It’ll be an all-Acura, all-Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti front row leading the field to the green flag in tomorrow’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend race at Road America – led by the pole-winning #10 Acura ARX-06 of Filipe Albuquerque and co-driver Ricky Taylor.
Albuquerque won his first pole of 2024 and the fifth of his career this afternoon, carrying his impressive pace from the first two practice sessions into Saturday afternoon’s Qualifying sessions.
The Portuguese driver was the first man to go under one minute and 50 seconds this weekend, taking provisional pole with a 1:49.559. He improved further on his next lap, setting a 1:48.968, to jump back ahead of the sister car #40 driven by Jordan Taylor.
With less than five minutes to go, Albuquerque gained another three-tenths. His best lap of 1:48.601 stood as the best all the way to the end of the 15-minute session.
“I didn’t buy Ricky Taylor a birthday present. So my gift will be pole position!” Albuquerque said after Qualifying.
“I’m just happy with the feeling of the car, how it was. Normally when it’s like this, I just feel like the car could do X and I could just do a little bit – more but I’m just confident on it. It’s a great job for Acura, a front-row lockout. I can’t be so big of ego starting on the pole position – starting on the front row is more than enough.”
Taylor, meanwhile, did his best to try and cut into Albuquerque’s margin. But the red and black #40 WTRAndretti Acura could do no better than a 1:48.863. Taylor and Louis Deletraz will have to line up on the outside of the front row tomorrow in this two-hour, 40-minute race – the last sprint of the season for the GTP class.
Renger van der Zande qualified third in the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, leading a surprise front runner among the four Porsche 963s – Gianmaria Bruni in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche, in fourth place – and ahead of the two Porsche Penske works cars!
Pipo Derani completed the top five in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac, just 16 milliseconds off Bruni’s time and not far ahead of the #25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor de Phillippi in sixth, and the #6 Penske Porsche of Nick Tandy in seventh.
Richard Westbrook qualified eighth in the #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche, while championship leader Dane Cameron could only muster up ninth place in the #7 Penske Porsche.
Elsewhere, the #24 RLL BMW of Philipp Eng and Jesse Krohn will start from the rear of the GTP field. Krohn had an incident in Practice 2 that damaged the rear of the car, and repairs to the transmission couldn’t be completed in time for the car to make a run in Qualifying.
The remarkable rise of PJ Hyett continued as AO Racing’s founder and Bronze driver scored his fourth consecutive pole position driving Spike the LMP2 Dragon – aka, the #99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07.
Hyett and Spike roared to the provisional pole early on with a 1:54.492, then improved to a 1:53.818, and at the end, a 1:53.738 to win the pole at AO Racing’s home track, closest to their headquarters in the Chicago area. Not only was Hyett the fastest of the Bronze drivers taking part in qualifying, but his fastest lap was quicker than the best practice laps of most LMP2 professional drivers!
Equally as impressive was Ben Keating’s second-place run in the #2 United Autosports USA ORECA – that was repaired in just a few short hours after Keating crashed at the Carousel during Practice 2 in the morning! Showing no signs of the earlier wounds, Keating put in a typically strong run – he will start on the front row with a time of 1:54.110, just ahead of team-mate Dan Goldburg in the #22 United ORECA.
Nick Boulle qualified fourth in the #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen car, with Luis Perez Companc in fifth aboard the #88 Richard Mille AF Corse car.
Sean Creech Motorsports’ sole Ligier JS P217 put in a strong result in the hands of the Estonian driver Tonis Kasemets – who qualified eighth, ahead of LMP2 points leader Gar Robinson’s #74 Riley ORECA.
Gerry Kraut, in his first LMP2 start, qualified the #79 JDC-Miller MotorSports ORECA in 11th, ahead of the #18 Era Motorsport ORECA of Stuart Wiltshire making his second appearance in the car.
After Qualifying, Robinson and Felipe Fraga now lead Boulle and Tom Dillmann by just six points in the LMP2 Drivers’ standings.
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports locked out the front row of the GTD Pro class, led by the #4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg, who became the first driver this season to win multiple GTD Pro pole positions.
His team-mate Alexander Sims had taken provisional pole halfway into GTD combined qualifying – his #3 Pratt Miller Corvette went to the top with a 2:03.227. But soon after, Catsburg lit the fuse and rocketed to the top of the leaderboard, setting a new GTD Pro course record with a time of 2:02.198. It obliterated Alex Riberas’ previous track record by almost eight-tenths of a second.
Sims was able to get back into the Dutchman’s post code, improving to 2:02.392 to secure second place an all-Corvette front row – their third front-row lockout of the season. Tomorrow, the Pratt Miller Motorsports crew pursues its second consecutive GTD Pro victory, following the maiden win at Mosport.
Third in GTD Pro was the new #35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Giacomo Altoe wasted no time getting up to speed in the white and red Ferrari, and outqualified several GTD Pro regulars in his first IMSA start since 2022.
That included Jack Hawksworth, who bounced back from a heavy crash in the preceding Michelin Pilot Challenge race to qualify fourth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the defending series champion though – Hawksworth’s car stopped short of the entrance of pit lane at the end of the GTD qualifying session.
Mike Rockenfeller was fifth-fastest in the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 – while Julien Andlauer, AO Racing’s new recruit replacing the departed Seb Priaulx, was tenth out of ten qualifiers aboard Roxy, the #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R.
And in GTD, Mikaël Grenier captured his first career IMSA pole aboard the #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3.
The French-Canadian driver’s best lap of 2:03.634, set halfway through the session, displaced his fellow Canadian Zacharie Robichon from the top spot – and held up as the fastest time in the category.
Robichon held onto second place in his #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3, while in third, Onofrio Triarsi Jnr put in a strong performance in the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 – normally a Michelin Endurance Cup specialist entry, but making a rare sprint race appearance this weekend.
Patrick Gallagher was fourth-fastest in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, while runaway championship leader Russell Ward was fifth-fastest in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Tomorrow’s race starts at 2:10 PM CDT (local time) and will air on IMSA.TV and the IMSA official YouTube channel for viewers outside the United States.
Images © Jake Galstad, Richard Dole / IMSA
