WTRAndretti Acura Wins Petit Le Mans Pole And Takes Championship Lead

Louis Deletraz fought through slippery track conditions to give the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 the pole position for the 26th annual Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The 20 minutes of GTP qualifying proved to be an adventure. Rain began to fall hard enough by the start of the session to necessitate all ten cars to switch to wet tyres.

Track conditions didn’t improve enough for a switch to slicks, but Deletraz did make a massive improvement on his final lap and shot to the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1:15.402.

It’s Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global’s first pole since the Grand Prix of Long Beach when Filipe Albuquerque qualified fastest, and it was a monumental pole position in terms of the GTP championship fight.

Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor have now taken a nine-point lead in the championship standings off the back of Deletraz’s pole run, his first in the premier class of IMSA.

With nothing to lose and pride to fight for, Sébastien Bourdais qualified second in the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, two-tenths back of Deletraz’s best time.

The #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Augusto Farfus was third-fastest in the qualifying session after making the switch to wet tyres.

And in the team’s final race in IMSA before going on a hiatus, the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Tom Blomqvist qualified in fourth place.

Nick Tandy, who went into Friday’s qualifying session with a three-point championship lead, qualified his #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 fifth. Connor de Phillippi was sixth in the #25 BMW Team RLL car, which is BMW’s leading championship challenger.

Felipe Nasr was seventh in the #7 Penske Porsche, followed by Pipo Derani, who slipped off track during one of his final attempts and could only manage eighth in the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac, ahead of Mike Rockenfeller in the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche.

Neel Jani lost his lap times in qualifying after the #59 Proton Competition Porsche was penalized for unapproved pit work during the session.

But because of the patterns of rainfall this afternoon, the fastest time in qualifying did not belong to one of the top-of-the-line GTPs and one of their all-pro drivers – rather, it was a Bronze-graded gentleman driver in an LMP2 Oreca 07!

PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports took a small step towards winning the LMP2 championship as Ben Keating notched his fourth pole of the season aboard the Wynns-coloured #52 Oreca.

The battle for the 35 crucial qualifying points came down to a last-lap shootout between Keating and TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas. Thomas surpassed Keating at the chequered flag with a lap of 1:13.879, but Keating, on his final lap, retook the top spot with a time of 1:13.859 – only 20 milliseconds separated the two.

That’s allowed Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin to gain three points on Thomas and Mikkel Jensen in the race for the 2023 IMSA LMP2 Championship. It’s also allowed Keating to break the three-way deadlock with himself, Thomas, and George Kurtz in the Jim Trueman Award standings, as the three gentleman drivers fight for a guaranteed invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

John Falb was third-fastest in the repaired #35 TDS Racing Oreca, while Kurtz will line up fourth on the LMP2 grid in the #04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca.

The grid will still be formed in class order with the GTP cars ahead of the LMP2s, LMP3s, and combined GTD classes.

Ian James, the team principal of The Heart of Racing Team, rolled back the years of his own storied driving career and put his #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 on the GTD class pole position with a brave run.

James decided to roll the dice and drive on slicks while the track was still damp. The gamble from Heart of Racing’s “player-manager” paid off handsomely.

In what has been a whirlwind few weeks for Heart of Racing Team’s growing presence in sportscar racing, James took provisional pole in GTD with five minutes left in the combined GTD/GTD Pro qualifying session with a best lap of 1:23.168. That tied the GTD Pro best time set by champion-elect Jack Hawksworth.

At the chequered flag, James improved by a few hundredths to time in with a 1:23.116. That was good enough to put James, Roman de Angelis, and Marcø Sorensen on the outright GTD pole position, ahead of all the GTD Pro runners. It was also James’ first IMSA pole position since the 2004 Course de Monterey at Laguna Seca!

Hawksworth, meanwhile, won his fourth GTD Pro class pole of the year aboard the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 with his 1:23.168 lap time.

Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, together with Kyle Kirkwood, will only need to start the race tomorrow to be crowned the GTD Pro champions of 2023. And the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus team still has a chance to win the Michelin Endurance Cup to cap off a consistently excellent season.

Qualifying was also good for the two Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2s. Mirko Bortolotti qualified second in GTD Pro aboard the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, while Doriane Pin put in an excellent run in the #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini.

Pin held provisional pole in GTD until she was surpassed by James’ slick-tyre run, and her time held up for second in GTD.

However, Bortolotti’s times were deleted when he got out of his car before being instructed to do so, and the #63 Lamborghini will be sent to the back of the GTD grid.

Antonio Garcia qualified second in GTD Pro in the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD, while Jules Gounon was third in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. This is the last IMSA race for both cars and both teams in their current construction.

Behind GTD polesitter James and second-placed Pin, Aaron Telitz qualified third aboard the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, ahead of the #97 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen.

GTD champion Madison Snow was 11th-fastest in class, 17th of all GTDs, in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW.

Also of note, the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 successfully recovered from its crash in Practice 1 yesterday morning. Antonio Fuoco completed his qualifying run and was eighth in GTD class (13th in the combined GTD ranking).

Glenn van Berlo got away with a wild ride through the grass, but he held on and won the final pole position in the history of LMP3 in the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.

Van Berlo set a 1:16.674 to put the #36 Andretti Autosport Ligier JS P320 on the LMP3 class pole, his first since the Sebring 12 Hours.

Rasmus Lindh qualified second in the #85 JDC Miller Motorsports Duquiene D08, just a tenth back of Van Berlo.

Newly-crowned IMSA VP Racing Sportscar Challenge champion Bijoy Garg was third in the #30 Jr III Racing Ligier, while Orey Fidani was fourth in the #13 AWA Duquiene.

LMP3 champion-elect Gar Robinson and the #74 Riley Ligier didn’t set a time, one of three LMP3 cars that didn’t time in during the session.

QUALIFYING RESULTS >>

Images © Martin W. Spetz