IMSA VIR: Makowiecki’s Porsche and Fergus’ McLaren take poles
Fred Makowiecki scorched his way around VIRginia International Raceway to land pole for tomorrow’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship event, while Compass Racing’s Corey Fergus landed P1 in GTD.
The pair of Porsche 911 RSR-19s looked tough to beat in practice in the GT Le Mans class earlier on Friday, but in qualifying they went way beyond that.
Makowiecki in the #911 car he shares with Nick Tandy delivered a 1min40.389sec lap that put him just 0.130sec ahead of teammate Laurens Vanthoor, but 0.706sec ahead of third fastest car, the BMW M8 GTE driven heroically by Connor de Phillippi.
De Phillippi left it until his final flyer to beat the two Corvette C8.Rs of Jordan Taylor and Oliver Gavin who were separated by 0.4sec, while John Edwards was sixth in the second BMW.
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
Corey Fergus grabbed GT Daytona pole by just 0.074sec in Compass Racing’s McLaren 720S GT3, edging another strong qualifying performance from Turner Motorsports’ Robby Foley in the BMW M6 GT3.
Recent class dominators AIM Vasser Sullivan saw Franke Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz slot into third and sixth places in their Lexus RC F GT3s, separated by Matt McMurry in Meyer Shank Racing’s #86 Acura NSX GT3 and Madison Snow piloting the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan. This top six, featuring five different marques, was covered by by less than 0.3sec.
Cooper MacNeil slotted his WeatherTech Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 into eighth, just behind the second MSR Acura driven by Misha Goikhberg.
Session results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 911 |  Nick Tandy  Frédéric Makowiecki | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'40.389 | |
| 2 | 912 |  Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'40.519 | 0.130 |
| 3 | 25 |  Bruno Spengler  Connor de Phillippi | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'41.095 | 0.706 |
| 4 | 3 |  Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'41.228 | 0.839 |
| 5 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'41.662 | 1.273 |
| 6 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'41.716 | 1.327 |
| 7 | 76 | Corey Fergus Paul Holton | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'45.236 | 4.847 |
| 8 | 96 | Robby Foley Bill Auberlen | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'45.310 | 4.921 |
| 9 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'45.397 | 5.008 |
| 10 | 86 |  Mario Farnbacher Matt McMurry | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'45.434 | 5.045 |
| 11 | 48 | Madison Snow Bryan Sellers | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'45.453 | 5.064 |
| 12 | 14 | Jack Hawksworth Aaron Telitz | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'45.524 | 5.135 |
| 13 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'45.565 | 5.176 |
| 14 | 57 |  Alvaro Parente Mikhail Goikhberg | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'45.570 | 5.181 |
| 15 | 22 | Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'46.196 | 5.807 |
| 16 | 23 | Roman De Angelis Ian James | GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'46.391 | 6.002 |
| 17 | 74 | Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'46.391 | 6.002 |
| 18 | 16 | Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'46.459 | 6.070 |
| 19 | 30 | Rob Ferriol Spencer Pumpelly | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'46.726 | 6.337 |
| 20 | 44 | Andy Lally John Potter | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'48.186 | 7.797 |
| View full results | ||||||
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About this article
| Series | IMSA |
| Event | VIR |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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