Road America IMSA: Cameron shatters DPi lap record to win pole
Dane Cameron claimed IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position for Acura Team Penske at Road America with a 1min48.715sec lap that cut more than two seconds from the track's DPi record.
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Oliver Jarvis performed superbly for Mazda Team Joest to split the Acura ARX-05s before the session was interrupted by a red flag caused by Matt McMurry dropping his P2 car into a sandtrap.
However, when action resumed and Helio Castroneves went out for the final five minutes, the Brazilian veteran was a man on a mission, and his last effort drew him to within 0.016sec of Cameron to complete an Acura Team Penske front row.
Jonathan Bomarito was not so successful in finding a clean lap in the second Mazda and was disappointed to wind up 0.4sec off teammate Jarvis, but it was still quick enough for fourth.
Simon Trummer earned the honor of being quickest Cadillac DPi-V.R driver in JDC Miller Motorsports' #84 entry but he was 1.2sec off the ultimate pace, albeit 0.2sec ahead of Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani.
A brief and mild rain shower between the abbreviated GTD session and the GT Le Mans session left some localized damp patches, one of which sent Jan Magnussen’s #3 Corvette C7.R skating on at the final corner, although he dug himself out without assistance.
Magnussen’s teammate Oliver Gavin was the first driver to eclipse the GT Daytona times, and it took until his third lap to do so. Thereafter the track started drying rapidly, Patrick Pilet’s #912 Porsche took a turn at the top but then Tom Blomqvist’s #25 BMW M8 set a new GTLM lap record at 2min00.344sec to go P1. He then pitted.
Gavin looked like he was going to be Blomqvist’s closest challenger, 0.319sec behind; then Ryan Briscoe completed a strong lap in the final seconds to beat Gavin by 0.005sec, but the former IndyCar driver was adjudged to have exceeded track limits at Turn 1 and his lap was invalidated.
Thus Briscoe was relegated to fourth, where he’ll start alongside the second BMW of Jesse Krohn, who was some 0.4sec slower than his teammate.
Dirk Muller (Ford) and Laurens Vanthoor (Porsche 911 RSR) comprise third row, while Magnussen and Pilet wound up seventh and eighth respectively.
Two-time Road America winner Ben Keating earned his first pole position in GTD, although the last five minutes of the session were chopped off due to lightning in the area halting the session early.
Nonetheless, given the pace of the Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG-GT3 all weekend, it seems unlikely that anyone was going to topple him. He was four-tenths clear of the rest of the field, led by Corey Lewis in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan, who just edged Matt Plumb’s Compass Racing McLaren 720S by 0.06sec mere nanoseconds before the red flag.
Zacharie Robichon’s Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R grabbed fifth ahead of Trent Hindman’s Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX and Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M6.
Richard Heistand made it seven different cars in the top seven spots, the #14 Lexus RC F of AIM Vasser Sullivan beating Ana Beatriz’s Acura by just 0.001sec.
Tomorrow’s 20min warm-up session starts at 8.30am local (Central) time, with the race getting the green flag at 1.35pm.
UPDATE: Both BMW M8s were sent to the back of the GTLM grid after ride height infractions were discovered in post-session scrutineering checks.
It means the #4 Corvette inherits class pole, ahead of the two Ford GTs and the #912 Porsche.
Session results:
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 |
Dane Cameron
Juan Pablo Montoya |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'48.715 | |
2 | 7 |
Ricky Taylor
Helio Castroneves |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'48.731 | 0.016 |
3 | 77 |
Oliver Jarvis
Tristan Nunez |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'48.949 | 0.234 |
4 | 55 |
Jonathan Bomarito
Harry Tincknell |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'49.381 | 0.666 |
5 | 84 |
Simon Trummer
Stephen Simpson |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'49.911 | 1.196 |
6 | 31 |
Felipe Nasr
Pipo Derani |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'50.111 | 1.396 |
7 | 5 |
Joao Barbosa
Filipe Albuquerque |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'50.783 | 2.068 |
8 | 10 |
Renger van der Zande
Jordan Taylor |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'50.799 | 2.084 |
9 | 85 |
Mikhail Goikhberg
Tristan Vautier |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'51.251 | 2.536 |
10 | 54 |
Jon Bennett
Colin Braun |
DPi | Nissan DPi | 1'51.257 | 2.542 |
11 | 38 |
Cameron Cassels
James French |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'52.037 | 3.322 |
12 | 52 |
Matt McMurry
Patrick Kelly |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'53.264 | 4.549 |
13 | 25 |
Tom Blomqvist
Connor de Phillippi |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 2'00.344 | 11.629 |
14 | 4 |
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner |
GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 2'00.663 | 11.948 |
15 | 24 |
Jesse Krohn
John Edwards |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 2'00.767 | 12.052 |
16 | 67 |
Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook |
GTLM | Ford GT | 2'00.835 | 12.120 |
17 | 66 |
Joey Hand
Dirk Muller |
GTLM | Ford GT | 2'00.922 | 12.207 |
18 | 912 |
Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 2'01.038 | 12.323 |
19 | 3 |
Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia |
GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 2'01.085 | 12.370 |
20 | 911 |
Patrick Pilet
Nick Tandy |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 2'01.836 | 13.121 |
21 | 33 |
Ben Keating
Jeroen Bleekemolen |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 2'05.250 | 16.535 |
22 | 48 |
Bryan Sellers
Corey Lewis |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'05.663 | 16.948 |
23 | 76 |
Paul Holton
Matt Plumb |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 2'05.723 | 17.008 |
24 | 9 |
Matt Campbell
Zacharie Robichon |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'05.890 | 17.175 |
25 | 86 |
Mario Farnbacher
Trent Hindman |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'06.028 | 17.313 |
26 | 96 |
Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 2'06.105 | 17.390 |
27 | 14 |
Richard Heistand
Jack Hawksworth |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'06.425 | 17.710 |
28 | 57 |
Katherine Legge
Ana Beatriz |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'06.426 | 17.711 |
29 | 91 |
Anthony Imperato
Dennis Olsen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'06.432 | 17.717 |
30 | 63 |
Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 2'06.537 | 17.822 |
31 | 73 |
Patrick Lindsey
Patrick Long |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'06.886 | 18.171 |
32 | 44 |
John Potter
Andy Lally |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'07.509 | 18.794 |
33 | 8 |
Parker Chase
Ryan Dalziel |
GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 2'08.156 | 19.441 |
34 | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo
Townsend Bell |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'08.289 | 19.574 |
35 | 74 |
Gar Robinson
Lawson Aschenbach |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG | 2'08.392 | 19.677 |
View full results |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments