#10: Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05, Acura DPi, DPi: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque
Qualifying got underway at Road America on a hot Saturday afternoon with the first five class race weekend since Watkins Glen. The day got started with a double GT session with the GTD and GTD Pro classes.
Antiono Garcia set the GTD Pro pace in his #3 Corvette with a 2:05.930. That pace wouldn’t fall too drastically to the pole time, which was 2:05.618 set by Jack Hawksworth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus machine. Matt Campbell in his Pfaff Motorsport #9 car and Garcia round out the top three in GTD Pro.
GTD wasn’t far off either with a pole time of 2:06.224 set by Robby Foley in his #96 Turner Motorsport BMW. Foley will lead the field to green followed by Frankie Montecalvo in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus and Robert Megennis in the #39 CarBhan with Peregrine Racing entry in the top three.
LMP3 was next on track, Jerrett Andretti in his #36 Andretti Autosport traded laps with #32 Sean Creech Motorsport driver Malthe Jakobsen at the top of the timing table. Jakobsen took it in the end with a 1:59.434, setting the first sub two minute lap of qualifying. Andretti slotted in P2 and on a last lap flyer Gar Robinson threw his #74 Riley Motorsport in P3.
LMP2 shared the track with DPi in the last session of qualifying. In the end the battle was between teammates Steven Thomas in the #11 and Patrick Kelly in the #52, both racing for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport. Thomas came out on top with a 1.54.137 followed by Kelly with a 1.54.271.
DPi took the track for the second to last time this season and the fight was between the Acura as it has been the last few events. Today was a little more one-sided than normal however, with Filipe Albuquerque getting behind the wheel of the #10 Konica Minolta Acura and staying on the top of the timing tower for almost the whole session.
Early on he faced some pressure from Richard Westbrook in the #5 JDC-Motorsport Cadillac and Alex Lynn in the #02 Cadillac. Tom Blomqvist didn’t have the pace today to apply the pressure on Albuquerque and with a few minutes left in the session, Sebastian Bordais in the #01 Cadillac lost it off of turn 14 and ended up in the wall, The red flag came out, and the session clock ran out leaving the #10 on pole with a 1.48.915, Lynn and Blomqvist will follow the #10 to green tomorrow in P2 and P3 respectively.
Keyword: Albuquerque takes pole at Road America