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Qualifying report

Lime Rock IMSA: Corvette and Aston Martin take poles

Jordan Taylor edged Corvette Racing teammate Tommy Milner to take pole for IMSA’s Northeast Grand Prix, while Roman De Angelis took top spot in GT Daytona, driving Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage.

#23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3, GTD: Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis

#23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3, GTD: Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis

Art Fleischmann

Seven minutes into the GTLM/ GTD Pro segment of the session, while holding an impressive second place and splitting the two Corvettes, Cooper MacNeil dumped his Porsche 911 RSR off course at Turn 3. While he got the car going again without assistance, he caused a red flag, which meant he lost his two fastest laps, so will start tomorrow behind the two C8.Rs.

Jordan Taylor set a 49.958sec before the stoppage, but although teammate Tommy Milner matched him to the thousandth of a second in sector 2 on his first flyer after the red flag, he couldn’t quite find the hundredths necessary on the other two sectors to nudge the #3 Corvette from the top. They finished the session 0.142sec apart.

In the Bronze-rated driver segment of GT Daytona qualifying that sets the grid order, there was a fine battle for honors between six cars, including the HoR Aston Martin, the two Lexus RC Fs, the Carbahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 and the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan.

However, Roman de Angelis parked the Aston Martin in pitlane with eight minutes still to go, having lapped the 1.474-mile course in 51.729sec, at that point 0.045sec faster than the opposition. The team’s confidence was justified – no one could beat that time, and so Madison Snow (PMR Lambo), Frankie Montecalvo (#12 Lexus), Zach Robichon (Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3R) and Robby Foley (Turner Motorsports BMW M6) soon followed suit.

Eventually even Aaron Telitz gave up trying to knock de Angelis off the top, and the last man likely to do so, who kept trying until 90sec from the end, was Richard Heistand in the Peregrine Audi. However, he fell 0.055sec short of P1, and just 0.01 from Telitz in P2.

Montecalvo will start fourth, ahead of Snow, followed by Robichon as top Porsche driver in sixth. Robby Foley was seventh for Turner BMW ahead of Trent Hindman in the Wright Motorsports Porsche, 0.413 from HoR’s pole-winning Aston.

The pros then took to the track at the same time as the GT Le Mans drivers, to settle qualifying points, and it was Jack Hawksworth who earned his fourth P1 of the year in the #14 VSR Lexus. He was a mere 0.048sec ahead of the Compass Racing Acura NSX of Mario Farnbacher, who was a similar distance clear of Franck Perera in the Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan and Laurens Vanthoor in the Pfaff Porsche.

Raceday warm-up begins at 9.05am local (Eastern) time, with the Northeast Grand Prix to begin at 3.10pm.

Cla Driver Class Chassis Time Gap
Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
GTLM Corvette C8.R 49.958
United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
GTLM Corvette C8.R 50.100
United States Cooper MacNeil
France Mathieu Jaminet
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR - 19
United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 51.989
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 52.023
United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Zach Veach
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 51.937
United States Aaron Telitz
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 51.774
United States Trent Hindman
United States Patrick Long
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 52.142
Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
France Franck Perera
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 52.400
Canada Roman De Angelis
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 51.729
United States Richard Heistand
United States Jeff Westphal
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 51.784
United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
GTD Acura NSX GT3 53.396
United States Till Bechtolsheimer
United States Marc Miller
GTD Acura NSX GT3 52.271
Jeff Kingsley
Germany Mario Farnbacher
GTD Acura NSX GT3 52.278
United States Rob Ferriol
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 53.333
United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
GTD BMW M6 GT3 52.053

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