IMSA Road America: Acura, Porsche, Lexus grab poles
Ricky Taylor went three tenths faster than teammate Dane Cameron to lock out the front row for Acura Team Penske for the fourth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Road America.
Pole Winner #7 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, DPi: Ricky Taylor
Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Prototype
Taylor’s lap of 1min49.061sec in the #7 Acura gave him his tenth pole position in IMSA competition, and was 0.318sec clear of Cameron’s best effort in the sister Acura ARX-05.
However, the battle wasn’t completely satisfactorily resolved in that the Prototypes lost the last four minutes of their session when Felipe Nasr spun the Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R into a gravel trap having just set his fastest lap of the session.
Nasr's time was fifth-best behind not only the Acuras but also the Mazda RT24-Ps of Harry Tincknell and Tristan Nunez, who were themselves separated by half a second, but the Brazilian lost his best time for causing a red flag.
That promoted Ryan Briscoe of Wayne Taylor Racing to fifth ahead of Joao Barbosa in the JDC-Miller Motorsports Caddy he shares with Sebastien Bourdais.
In LMP2, Patrick Kelly was fastest for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, a second faster than Henrik Hedman of DragonSpeed.
GT Le Mans
#912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Laurens Vanthoor, Earl Bamber
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
There are only six cars in GTLM this year but they put on a fascinating qualifying battle at Road America that eventually saw the field covered by 0.715sec. Porsche 911 RSR-19s book-ended the field with Laurens Vanthoor earning pole in the #912 car and Frederic Makowiecki bringing up the rear in the #911 car he shares with Nick Tandy.
Vanthoor’s 2m00.590sec lap was over quarter-second faster Sebring polesitter Jordan Taylor in the #3 Corvette C8.R who in turn had just half a tenth over teammate Oliver Gavin.
Bruno Spengler and Jesse Krohn were only fourth and fifth in the two BMW M8 GTEs, but were only 0.6sec off pole.
GT Daytona
#14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC-F GT3: Aaron Telitz, Jack Hawksworth
Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images
Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo continued the AIM Vasser Sullivan team’s domination of the GT Daytona class since the restart of the IMSA season, despite being docked nine horsepower for this race.
The Lexus RC F GT3s finished 0.787sec apart in favor of local boy Telitz, but Montecalvo was more than two tenths clear of third-placed Corey Fergus in the Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3.
Robby Foley and Turner Motorsports were arguably the heroes of the hour, bouncing back from a nasty shunt in FP2 caused by brake failure to land fourth place in the repaired BMW M6 GT3.
The third row for tomorrow’s race will comprise Gar Robinson in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Cooper MacNeil’s Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3, with the two Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3s locking out Row 4.
Tomorrow’s race begins at 11.05am local (Central) time, 12.05pm ET.
Session results:
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 |
Helio Castroneves
Ricky Taylor |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'49.061 | |
2 | 6 |
Dane Cameron
Juan Pablo Montoya |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'49.379 | 0.318 |
3 | 55 |
Jonathan Bomarito
Harry Tincknell |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'49.607 | 0.546 |
4 | 77 |
Oliver Jarvis
Tristan Nunez |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'50.120 | 1.059 |
5 | 10 |
Renger van der Zande
Ryan Briscoe |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'50.216 | 1.155 |
6 | 5 |
Joao Barbosa
Sébastien Bourdais |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'50.742 | 1.681 |
7 | 31 |
Felipe Nasr
Pipo Derani |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'51.391 | 2.330 |
8 | 85 |
Chris Miller
Tristan Vautier |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'51.681 | 2.620 |
9 | 52 |
Simon Trummer
Patrick Kelly |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'54.474 | 5.413 |
10 | 81 |
Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'55.427 | 6.366 |
11 | 38 |
Cameron Cassels
James French |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'56.965 | 7.904 |
12 | 18 |
Dwight Merriman
Kyle Tilley |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'57.589 | 8.528 |
13 | 912 |
Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 2'00.590 | 11.529 |
14 | 3 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 2'00.854 | 11.793 |
15 | 4 |
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 2'00.904 | 11.843 |
16 | 25 |
Bruno Spengler
Connor de Phillippi |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 2'01.155 | 12.094 |
17 | 24 |
Jesse Krohn
John Edwards |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 2'01.202 | 12.141 |
18 | 911 |
Nick Tandy
Frédéric Makowiecki |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 2'01.305 | 12.244 |
19 | 14 |
Jack Hawksworth
Aaron Telitz |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'06.251 | 17.190 |
20 | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo
Townsend Bell |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'07.038 | 17.977 |
21 | 76 |
Corey Fergus
Paul Holton |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 2'07.265 | 18.204 |
22 | 96 |
Robby Foley
Bill Auberlen |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 2'07.361 | 18.300 |
23 | 74 |
Gar Robinson
Lawson Aschenbach |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 2'07.911 | 18.850 |
24 | 63 |
Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 2'07.924 | 18.863 |
25 | 86 |
Mario Farnbacher
Matt McMurry |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'07.942 | 18.881 |
26 | 57 |
Alvaro Parente
Mikhail Goikhberg |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'08.118 | 19.057 |
27 | 16 |
Ryan Hardwick
Patrick Long |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'08.269 | 19.208 |
28 | 22 |
Till Bechtolsheimer
Marc Miller |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'08.520 | 19.459 |
29 | 23 |
Roman De Angelis
Ian James |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 2'08.540 | 19.479 |
30 | 44 |
Andy Lally
John Potter |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'09.822 | 20.761 |
31 | 30 |
Rob Ferriol
Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 2'10.474 | 21.413 |
View full results |
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