Filipe Albuquerque set the initial benchmark in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 with a 1min30.029sec, and then beat himself with a 1min29.744sec. Earl Bamber with 7mins to go slotted the #02 Ganassi into second but half a second from Albuquerque but was hindered on his next lap as he appeared uncertain what Olivier Pla in the Action Express Racing Caddy ahead of him might do.
Tom Blomqvist, Kamui Kobayashi and Sebastien Bourdais left it until almost halfway through the 15min segment to hit the track, but Blomqvist delivered immediately with a 1min29.698sec lap to shade Albuquerque by 0.046sec, and the WTR driver promptly pitted. Blomqvist’s second effort was held up by a meandering LMP2 car, but next time by he delivered a 1min29.580sec to extend his advantage over Albuquerque by 0.164sec. Job done, he pitted.
The Cadillacs were left gasping in comparison although Bourdais hammered in a 1min30.048sec to edge a couple of tenths ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Earl Bamber.
Pla was 0.920sec off top spot in the Action Express Racing Whelen Engineering Cadillac, but still half a second clear of Tristan Vautier in the JDC Miller MotorSports. Kamui Kobayashi ran just three unrepresentative times in the AXR part-time car.
PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports teammates Ben Keating and Steven Thomas had a terrific battle for preeminence in LMP2, the pair ending in that order but only 0.001sec apart. Their constant striving for the perfect lap lifted them more than 1.5sec clear of High Class Racing’s Dennis Andersen, with Frits van Eerd delivering fourth for Racing Team Nederland.
Jarett Andretti was the first of the LMP3 drivers into the 1min40.915sec with the Andretti Autosport Ligier, but he was soon displaced by Josh Sarchet in the MLT Motorsports car and Nico Varrone of FastMD Racing. Indeed, the latter’s Duqueine then vaulted to the top by over half a second on its second flyer.
Then Andretti lost his chance to usurp Varrone and get onto the front row in class, when the car writhed out of his control while exiting the final turn and, with a bent left-rear, hobbled into the Turn 1 runoff which caused a red flag. That caused him to lose his two best times and for the LMP3 qualifying session to end with Varrone ahead of Sarchet, and Jon Bennett claiming third in the CORE autosport Ligier.
Just 21 of the 23 GT cars hit the track in qualifying, thanks to Hardpoint and Gradient teams having to rebuild their Porsche and Acura respectively following their shunt in FP2 this morning.
Stevan McAleer in the GTD Team Korthoff Mercedes AMG Mercedes GT3 was the first driver into the 1m45s with a 1min45.893sec lap, but he was outpaced by 0.4sec by Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M4, and the pair were split by the GTD Pro cars of Ross Gunn (Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage) and Davide Rigon (Risi Competizione Ferrari 488).
Then Ben Barnicoat sprang to the top with a 1min45.220sec in the #14 GTD Pro Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F before Rigon’s next effort was a 1min45.195.
McAleer nudged ahead of Foley in GTD with four minutes to go.
But Connor De Phillippi in the works BMW M4 of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on his first flyer delivered a sensational 1min44.755sec to head GTD Pro, just 0.048sec ahead of Gunn’s Aston Martin. De Phillippi decided he could do no better, and hoped no one else could, and pitted. Gunn, too, had no more bullets and pulled in.
Behind them, McAleer’s final effort moved him to the head of GTD, ahead of Rigon’s Ferrari and Barnicoat’s Lexus, and thus scored his first ever IMSA pole.
The second Lexus of underrated Am driver Richard Heistand was next up, second in GTD, a mere 0.009sec ahead of Foley’s BMW, which in turn outpaced the fastest Porsche 911 GT3 R, the Pfaff Motorsports GTD Pro entry steered by Mathieu Jaminet.
Cla | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap | km/h | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'29.580 | 136.637 | ||
2 |
Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'29.744 | 0.164 | 136.387 | |
3 |
Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'30.048 | 0.468 | 135.927 | |
4 |
Earl Bamber Alex Lynn | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'30.242 | 0.662 | 135.635 | |
5 |
Olivier Pla Pipo Derani Mike Conway | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'30.500 | 0.920 | 135.248 | |
6 |
Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'31.059 | 1.479 | 134.418 | |
7 |
Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'33.930 | 4.350 | 130.309 | |
8 |
Steven Thomas Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'33.931 | 4.351 | 130.308 | |
9 |
Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'35.448 | 5.868 | 128.237 | |
10 |
Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Dylan Murry | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'35.778 | 6.198 | 127.795 | |
11 |
John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'35.838 | 6.258 | 127.715 | |
12 |
Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'36.120 | 6.540 | 127.340 | |
13 |
Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'37.658 | 8.078 | 125.335 | |
14 |
Nico Varrone Max Hanratty James Vance | LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'40.028 | 10.448 | 122.365 | |
15 |
Dakota Dickerson Josh Sarchet Tyler Maxson | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'40.590 | 11.010 | 121.682 | |
16 |
Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'41.288 | 11.708 | 120.843 | |
17 |
Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Gabby Chaves | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'41.360 | 11.780 | 120.757 | |
18 |
Daniel Goldburg Rasmus Lindh Cameron Shields | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'41.471 | 11.891 | 120.625 | |
19 |
Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'41.481 | 11.901 | 120.613 | |
20 |
Anthony Mantella Matthew Bell Wayne Boyd | LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'42.296 | 12.716 | 119.652 | |
21 |
Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'42.392 | 12.812 | 119.540 | |
22 |
Orey Fidani Kyle Marcelli Lars Kern | LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'42.886 | 13.306 | 118.966 | |
23 |
Ugo De Danny Formal Dillon Machavern | LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'43.193 | 13.613 | 118.612 | |
24 |
Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus | GTD PRO | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'44.755 | 15.175 | 116.844 | |
25 |
Ross Gunn Alex Riberas | GTD PRO | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'44.803 | 15.223 | 116.790 | |
26 |
Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller | GTD | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 1'45.077 | 15.497 | 116.486 | |
27 |
Daniel Serra Davide Rigon | GTD PRO | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'45.169 | 15.589 | 116.384 | |
28 |
Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood | GTD PRO | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'45.215 | 15.635 | 116.333 | |
29 |
Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'45.417 | 15.837 | 116.110 | |
30 |
Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan | GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'45.426 | 15.846 | 116.100 | |
31 |
Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet | GTD PRO | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'45.548 | 15.968 | 115.966 | |
32 |
Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst | GTD | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 1'45.631 | 16.051 | 115.875 | |
33 |
Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson | GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'45.634 | 16.054 | 115.871 | |
34 |
Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'45.756 | 16.176 | 115.738 | |
35 |
Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'45.762 | 16.182 | 115.731 | |
36 |
Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'45.916 | 16.336 | 115.563 | |
37 |
Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor | GTD PRO | Corvette C8.R GTD | 1'46.259 | 16.679 | 115.190 | |
38 |
Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'46.264 | 16.684 | 115.184 | |
39 |
Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin Ian James | GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'46.309 | 16.729 | 115.136 | |
40 |
Cooper MacNeil Maro Engel Mikael Grenier | GTD PRO | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 1'46.699 | 17.119 | 114.715 | |
41 |
Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'46.821 | 17.241 | 114.584 | |
42 |
Jon Miller Paul Holton Patrick Gallagher | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'46.936 | 17.356 | 114.460 | |
43 |
John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly | GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'47.466 | 17.886 | 113.896 | |
44 |
Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'47.497 | 17.917 | 113.863 | |
45 |
Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 2'17.096 | 47.516 | 89.280 | |
46 |
Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Lance Willsey | LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | ||||
47 |
Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | ||||
48 |
Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | ||||
View full results |