IMSA Road Atlanta: Acura, Porsche, Lexus take poles

Prototype

Castroneves laid down a brilliant lap to steal pole from the hitherto dominant car of the weekend, lapping the 2.54-mile road course in 68.674sec, a mere 0.056sec faster than ex-F1 driver Felipe Nasr in the Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R.

The Acuras, which had not looked so strong in practice had clearly saved their best ’til last, for Dane Cameron was just another 0.037sec behind in third, ahead of the two Mazda RT24-Ps.

Given the tightness of the class, it was no surprise that some mistakes were made, Nasr taking a wild run off at Turn 1, and just escaping scraping a wall, Tincknell driving like Keke Rosberg using all the track, curb and more to try and improve his time.

Sebastien Bourdais clocked sixth fastest for JDC-Miller Motorsports, beating Renger van der Zande’s Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, and Matheus Leist in the second JDC Caddy.

Patrick Kelly ensured PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports will start ahead of Era Motorsport in the two-car LMP2 battle, Dwight Merriman surviving a spin in the latter machine.

GT Le Mans

Tandy took pole in an astonishingly close battle for supremacy, in which five of the six cars were covered by one tenth, and the sixth was less than a further tenth away.

Tandy’s #911 Porsche 911 RSR lapped the course in 1min16.167sec, 0.014sec ahead of Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette C8.R who in turn had a mere 0.045sec edge over the sister car piloted by Tommy Milner.

Laurens Vanthoor scored fourth in the #912 Porsche ahead of the two BMW M8s of Connor De Phillippi and Jesse Krohn.

GT Daytona

Montecalvo took pole for AIM Vasser Sullivan, his Lexus RC F GT3 lapping 0.15sec faster than Madison Snow’s Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and Jan Heylen in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3s of Shinya Michimi and Misha Goikhberg clocked fourth and sixth, sandwiching Steijn Schothorst in the Grasser Racing Lamborghini.

Robby Foley was seventh in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 that won the class last time out at VIR, with Jeff Westphal’s WeatherTech Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 in eighth.

Michael de Quesada had a trip off the track in the second Lexus and couldn’t shift the cut grass from his grille and front air dam, so elected to pit and settle for ninth. That still left him ahead of Gar Robinson in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3.

GRT Magnus elected not to go out for qualifying and instead save a set of tires for tomorrow.

Saturday's six-hour TireRack.com Grand Prix at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta runs from 11.35am to 5.35pm local (Eastern) time.

Qualifying results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	7	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	DPi	Acura DPi	1'08.674
2	31	Felipe Nasr Filipe Albuquerque Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'08.730	0.056
3	6	Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron	DPi	Acura DPi	1'08.767	0.093
4	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez Olivier Pla	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'08.916	0.242
5	55	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell Ryan Hunter-Reay	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'08.948	0.274
6	5	Joao Barbosa Sébastien Bourdais Tristan Vautier	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'09.067	0.393
7	10	Renger van der Zande Ryan Briscoe	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'09.079	0.405
8	85	Matheus Leist Stephen Simpson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'09.683	1.009
9	52	Patrick Kelly Simon Trummer Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'12.209	3.535
10	18	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Colin Braun	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'15.490	6.816
11	911	Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'16.167	7.493
12	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	1'16.181	7.507
13	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	1'16.212	7.538
14	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'16.245	7.571
15	25	Bruno Spengler Connor de Phillippi	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'16.253	7.579
16	24	Jesse Krohn John Edwards	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'16.359	7.685
17	12	Townsend Bell Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'19.757	11.083
18	48	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'19.907	11.233
19	16	Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'19.920	11.246
20	86	Mario Farnbacher Matt McMurry Shinya Michimi	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'20.009	11.335
21	11	Richard Heistand Steijn Schothorst Richard Westbrook	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'20.125	11.451
22	57	Alvaro Parente Mikhail Goikhberg Trent Hindman	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'20.364	11.690
23	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	1'20.469	11.795
24	63	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Jeff Westphal	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'20.606	11.932
25	14	Jack Hawksworth Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'20.615	11.941
26	74	Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach Ben Keating	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'20.649	11.975
27	23	Ian James Roman De Angelis	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'20.828	12.154
28	44	Andy Lally John Potter Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3
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