Tom Blomqvist led a front row sweep in Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s swansong in the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Driving the #60 Acura ARX-06, Blomqvist delivered an electric flying lap of 1m09.703s to take pole on the 12-turn, 2.54-mile natural terrain road course. Nick Yelloly, in the #93 Acura sister car, took second at a sizable 0.222s behind.
BMW M Team WRT’s Sheldon van der Linde, winner of the most recent round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was third.
Championship leader Jack Aitken inched closer to his first GTP title by qualifying fourth. He took on a fresh set of tires midway through qualifying and put together a strong closing run to vault to fifth in Whelen Cadillac’s #31 Cadillac V-Series.R. However, he was elevated to fourth after the No. 6 Porsche 963, qualified by Laurens Vanthoor, was dropped from fourth to fifth because of an incident involving Kevin Estre in Friday night practice.
With that, and the combination of Laurin Heinrich qualifying seventh in the #7 Porsche 963, Aitken only has to start the race on Saturday to be crowned champion - barring any post-qualifying inspection issues.
GTP
The sparring between the only title challengers was on out of the gate, with Heinrich setting the early tone at 1m10.656s and going even faster at 1m10.521s the next lap, while Aitken set a 1m10.965s lap.
However, those times wouldn’t hold as Blomqvist delivered a 1m10.3s lap to vault to the top before going even faster moments later with a 1m10.022s run to dethrone van der Linde’s time of 1m10.091s.
With over five minutes to go, Yelloly made his presence felt with a 1m09.925s flyer to cycle to the top spot. A minute later, Blomqvist responded with a 1m09.703s lap.
Aitken, on a fresh set of tires, set a 1m10.273s to move up to fifth with less than 1m30s remaining. He then improved with a 1m10.171s to advance one spot with less than 30s remaining.
As the session came to a close, no one was able to dethrone Blomqvist.
LMP2
With six minutes to go, AO Racing’s PJ Hyet was the first driver to go under 1m13s with a lap of 1m12.944s, which was enough to hold firm and take class pole in the #99 LMP2 ORECA 07.
Jeremy Clarke, who had an off-track moment in Turn 10 earlier in the session, put the #43 Inter Europol Competition entry in second, 0.223s off the time set by Hyet. Misha Goikhberg (Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen) was third, ahead of Daniel Goldburg (United Autosports USA) in fourth.
GTD Pro
Neil Verhagen put down the early quick lap and furthered it to set the benchmark at 1m18.268s in Paul Miller Racing’s #1 BMW M4 GT3 Evo. With three minutes to go, he dropped the time down to 1m18.194s.
In the end, Verhagen remained untouchable and took the class pole. Car Blanche’s Mattia Drudi jumped to second in the final minute with a 1m18.338s lap, which knocked Nicky Catsburg (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) off by 0.017s in third. The impact of that changed the complexion of the title picture with valuable qualifying points, with Catsburg’s and co-driver Tommy Milner’s championship lead shrinking to 42 points over Verhagen.
GTD
The red flag came out with just over three minutes to go as the Adam Adelson (Wright Motorsports) slowed offline into Turn 10, leaving the inside lane open. However, Brenden Iribe (Inception Racing) appeared to drive deeper into the corner, hitting the back of Adelson’s #120 Porsche 911 GT3.R with his #70 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.
The incident brought an end to the session, with Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis having logged the fastest time prior to the crash with a lap of 1m18.674s in his #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Antonio Fuoco, driving AF Corse USA’s #21 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, ended up second by 0.161s. Vasser Sullivan’s Aaron Telitz wrapped up third in the final race for the Lexus RC F GT3.
