Jack Aitken and Action Express Racing won the pole for the 27th annual Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in record style.
Aitken took his first career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole in the red #31 Cadillac V-Series.R on a picture-perfect Friday afternoon for time trials.
Sebastien Bourdais showed what was possible as he was the first driver to break the one-minute, 10-second barrier in a GTP car, with a 1:09.964. But moments later, Aitken came through and upstaged Bourdais with a blistering 1:09.688 to surpass the pink #01 Cadillac by three-tenths of a second.
After opening the season with three consecutive pole positions, the #31 Whelen Cadillac went back to pole position as Aitken improved on his last flying lap to a 1:09.639, a new GTP course record.
The only man who could come close was Matt Campbell, the third driver in the GTP Championship-leading #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.
The Australian, reuniting with fellow Daytona 24H winners Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr, gave it his best effort and set a 1:09.709 – good enough to put the #7 Penske Porsche on the outside of the front row.
Connor de Phillippi kept BMW M Team RLL’s upward momentum going, qualifying third in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8.
Bourdais’ initial lap of 1:09.964 would settle into fourth place – a good effort for the Chip Ganassi Racing team, but sadly, not enough to keep the dim light of a miracle GTP Championship alive. When the #7 Penske Porsche starts tomorrow’s race, the #01 Cadillac will officially drop out of championship contention (though the Michelin Endurance Cup is still within reach for several contenders).
Filipe Albuquerque qualified fifth in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, hoping to banish the memories of last year, while Phil Hanson was an impressive sixth in the #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche.
Behind them on the fourth row, were Jordan Taylor in the #40 WTRAndretti Acura in seventh, and Nick Tandy, second in the standings, and eighth-fastest today in the #6 Penske Porsche.
Rounding out the qualifying order were the #24 RLL BMW of Philipp Eng in ninth, the #5 Proton Competition Porsche of Alessio Picariello in tenth, and the #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 of Andrea Caldarelli in 11th, with 1.2 seconds covering the entire GTP field.
For the first time since Daytona, Ben Keating won the pole position in LMP2 aboard his purple #2 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 – his second straight LMP2 pole at Road Atlanta.
The man considered the gold standard of Bronze drivers would have won the pole with his first fast lap, a 1:12.994. His rivals, including Steven Thomas, PJ Hyett, and Nick Boulle all spent time chipping away at the deficit.
But even with seven laps on his Michelin tyres, Keating still had more time in the bag to put it out of the other drivers’ reach, setting a 1:12.739 to win his 17th career IMSA pole position, his first in nine long months!
Thomas was able to improve on his last lap to grab second place in the #11 TDS Racing ORECA, knocking Hyett and the #99 AO Racing ‘Spike’ ORECA off the front row.Hyett was third at the chequered flag, followed by LMP2 Championship leader Nick Boulle in the #52 Inter Europol/PR1 Mathiasen car in fourth, two places ahead of championship rival Gar Robinson in the #74 Riley car.
Daniel Goldburg rounded out the top five in the #22 United Autosports entry, while Dwight Merriman could only manage ninth in the #18 Era Motorsport car.
Laurin Heinrich in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R obliterated the previous GT course record at Road Atlanta, in his first Petit Le Mans. Rexy the GT3 Rawr’s ace jockey was rewarded with his first IMSA pole position, and valuable points towards his
first Petit Le Mans. Rexy the GT3 Rawr’s ace jockey was rewarded with his first IMSA pole position, and valuable points towards his pursuit of the GTD Pro Championship.
Heinrich’s first flying lap of 1:18.267 would have been enough to break Jack Hawksworth’s previous GT course record set in 2022 by some distance, but the German still had more pace in hand and put the pole out of reach with a 1:17.881, almost a second better than Hawksworth’s old course record.
Tommy Milner qualified second in the #4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, the only other driver under the one-minute, 18-second barrier (1:17.933), while Ross Gunn qualified third in the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Fourth in GTD Pro was the #3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia, followed by the best of the two Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3s, the #65 driven by Frederic Vervisch.
The 15-minute GT Qualifying session was interrupted by a red flag for debris, the result of an awkward collision at turn ten between Daniel Serra’s #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari and the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
The sixth-fastest GT of all came from the fastest man and car in GTD, Scott Andrews in the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. It was the Australian’s first IMSA WeatherTech pole
Andrews upset two of the GTD Championship contenders, Robby Foley and Philip Ellis, in the race for the GTD pole. Andrews’ best time of 1:18.281 was enough to get the top spot in class.
Foley qualified second in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, and while he was only able to take two points out of Turner Motorsport’s massive championship deficit, he was still able to outqualify the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Ellis, who was third.
Mike Skeen was fourth-quickest in the #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG, followed by the #45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini of Danny Formal in fifth, and Simon Mann, sixth-quickest in the #21 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3.Two GTD cars failed to set a time, but in the case of the #13 AWA Corvette, it was a conscious choice to save tyres for the race tomorrow. Unfortunately, the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari did not plan to sit out qualifying – Charlie Scardina reportedly smelled fuel in the cockpit, and the car was pushed behind the wall as a precaution.
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