CTMP IMSA: Braun’s Nissan beats Acura, Mazda to pole

Braun lapped the 2.459-mile course in 65.452sec in the Prototype battle for pole and Castroneves spun his Acura Team Penske ARX-05 at Turn 5 trying to respond, although he held onto his front-row slot.

Jonathan Bomarito was 0.328sec behind in the Watkins Glen-winning Mazda RT24-P, with Juan Pablo Montoya grabbing fourth in the second Acura ahead of the second Mazda of Tristan Nunez.

Felipe Nasr was pinged for exceeding track limits in the #31 Action Express Racing entry but was fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, a mere 0.05sec quicker than teammate Filipe Albuquerque.

Jordan Taylor was 0.8sec off the ultimate pace in the Wayner Taylor Racing Caddy, while Simon Trummer was 0.275sec faster than JDC Miller Motorsports teammate Misha Goikhberg, as Will Owen’s Juncos Racing Cadillac was 11th and last.

Of the two LMP2 cars, Kyle Masson’s Performance Tech Motorsports machine eclipsed sportscar debutant and local star Dalton Kellett of PR1/Mathiasen Motorsport by half a second.

Jesse Krohn set a stunning 1min13.086sec lap in the #24 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing BMW M8, and when teammate Tom Blomqvist – a CTMP debutant – spun exiting Turn 9, the Finn’s first ever GT Le Mans pole was secured by almost half a second.

Ryan Briscoe was fourth in the #67 Ford GT to narrowly edge the faster of the two Porsche 911 RSRs, driven by Patrick Pilet.

The faster Corvette C7.R, that of reigning GTLM champion Jan Magnussen, was left 1.2sec adrift, while teammate Marcel Fassler – subbing for the injured Tommy Milner – was a further 0.474sec down in his first qualifying experience at CTMP.

In GT Daytona, the battle for pole was between Turner Motorsports’ BMW M6, Trent Hindman’s Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura NSX and Ben Keating in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3.

In the end it was Foley who made the grade, topping the times by a mere 0.081sec with a 1min16.172sec ahead of Keating, while Hindman was just 0.1sec further adrift. This trio finished more than half a second up on the opposition.

Next was Hindman’s teammate in the Heinricher Racing NSX, Ana Beatriz, with Zachary Robichon fifth in the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R ahead of Frankie Montecalvo in the faster of the AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC Fs.

Reigning GTD champion team Paul Miller Racing has sadly had to withdraw its Lamborghini Huracan from the event following Ryan Hardwick’s contact with a JDC Miller Motorsport Cadillac in FP3 this morning that sent the Lambo into the Turn 2 barrier.

Session results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	DPi	Nissan DPi	1'05.452
2	7	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	DPi	Acura DPi	1'05.526	0.074
3	55	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'05.780	0.328
4	6	Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron	DPi	Acura DPi	1'05.872	0.420
5	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'05.913	0.461
6	31	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'06.080	0.628
7	5	Joao Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'06.130	0.678
8	10	Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'06.250	0.798
9	84	Simon Trummer Stephen Simpson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'06.598	1.146
10	85	Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'06.873	1.421
11	50	Will Owen Victor Franzoni	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'07.319	1.867
12	38	Kyle Masson Cameron Cassels	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'08.211	2.759
13	52	Matt McMurry Dalton Kellett	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'08.720	3.268
14	24	Jesse Krohn John Edwards	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'13.086	7.634
15	25	Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'13.548	8.096
16	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	1'13.804	8.352
17	911	Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'13.829	8.377
18	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'14.050	8.598
19	66	Joey Hand Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	1'14.138	8.686
20	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'14.295	8.843
21	4	Oliver Gavin Marcel Fassler	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'14.769	9.317
22	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	1'16.172	10.720
23	33	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'16.253	10.801
24	86	Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'16.353	10.901
25	57	Katherine Legge Ana Beatriz	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'16.865	11.413
26	9	Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'16.959	11.507
27	12	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'17.009	11.557
28	73	Patrick Lindsey Patrick Long	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'17.073	11.621
29	14	Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'17.267	11.815
30	63	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'17.301	11.849
31	76	Paul Holton Matt Plumb	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'17.316	11.864
32	74	Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Mercedes-AMG	1'17.368	11.916
33	44	John Potter Andy Lally	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'18.110	12.658
34	48	Bryan Sellers Ryan Hardwick	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	0.000
View full results