#10: Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, Acura ARX-06, GTP: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Louis Deletraz. Image: IMSA
Louis Deletraz has taken pole for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s Petit Le Mans, in the #10 Wayne Taylor Acura ARX-06, with the Swiss driver setting a 1:15.402.
It was an incredibly hard fought GTP qualifying session, with the provisional polesitter changing almost too frequently to count.
The 20 minute session for the top class prototypes started off raining, with most teams scrubbing in a set of dry tyres for the race, then pitting for a set of wet treaded tyres. The times were very slow for the first 10 minutes, slower even than the slowest GTD cars, which had qualified earlier in drier conditions.
However, in the second half of the session, with all cars on wets, the times came tumbling now, with Augusto Farfus in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 being the first driver to go under 1:20, with a 1:19.904.
All four manufacturers subsequently had a car at the top of times at some point in the remaining 10 minutes. With around 5 minutes to go, cars started pitting to get a new set of wet tyres, as the track conditions stabilised.
With new sets of tyres, the cars started to go for their final laps. Sebastien Bourdais, onboard the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, set a 1:15.632, but Deletraz was able to beat him by just over two tenths to take pole in the Konica Minolta-sponsored Acura.
With Deletraz on pole and Bourdais alongside him, third went to Farfus in the RLL-run BMW. Fourth was the #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist, just a few hundredths off Farfus. Blomqvist topped the timesheets through the session more than once, but ultimately couldn’t muster the same pace as Deletraz.
Fifth was Nick Tandy in the #6 Porsche 963, the quickest of the four cars from the German manufacturer. Tandy was on a quick final lap but lost time in the second sector, meaning he did not manage to improve. Sixth was Connor De Phillippi in the sister #25 BMW, while Felipe Nasr, in the #7 Porsche, was seventh,
Pipo Derani in the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R was eighth after losing it at the esses on his final lap, going off track through the motorcycle chicane.
Ninth was Mike Rockenfeller in the #5 JDC Miller Porsche 963, while the #59 Proton Porsche 963 had issues and did not complete a representative lap time.
Ben Keating took his 14th IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship pole, in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Oreca 07-Gibson, with the American setting a 1:13.859 to beat Steven Thomas, in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, by just 20 thousandths of a second.
The entire session for the LMPs was dominated by Keating and Thomas battling it out for LMP2 pole, as it as been for much of this season. As the session wore on, the tyres got up to full temperature, and the fuel burned off, they cut their times by almost two seconds.
George Kurtz did get a brief look in, briefly putting Keating down into third — before the car dealer beat him and went faster again. Kurtz went eventually qualify fourth, behind John Falb, who went third fastest in the sister #35 TDS Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, 0.521 off Keating.
In LMP3, Glenn Van Berlo claimed class pole in the #36 Andretti Autosport Ligier JS P320-Nissan, lapping Road Atlanta in 1:16.674. Second was Rasmus Lindh in the #85 JDC Miller Duqueine D08-Nissan, 0.129 off Van Berlo. Third was Bijoy Garg, in the #30 Jr III Ligier JS P320-Nissan, a further 0.144 off.
In the two GT classes, GTD Pro and GTD, Ian James in the GTD-entered #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was fastest overall, setting a 1:23.116.
James was on slicks, which may explain the half a tenth gap between himself and Jack Hawksworth, in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, who was fastest in the GTD Pro class and second overall in GT.
He set a 1:23.168 early on in the session, but was pipped by James for overall pole, with the Brit failing to go quicker later on. Third fastest overall was Mirko Bortolotti in the GTD Pro #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO, but the Italian would lose all his lap times after getting out of the car before qualifying ended.
This promoted teammate Doriane Pin to third overall, and second in GTD, in the #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini, setting a 1:23.795, a few tenths slower than Bortolotti’s disallowed time.
Third in GTD, and fourth overall, was Aaron Telitz in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, just over 7 tenths slower than James.
Second in GTD Pro, seventh overall, was Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette C8.R. Third, and ninth overall, was Jules Gounon in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Keyword: Deletraz takes Petit Le Mans pole for Acura at Road Atlanta