Derani Storms to Road America Pole

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Pipo Derani will start Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Road America from pole after flying to top qualifying honors Saturday afternoon.

The Brazilian took his No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to a quick lap of 1:47.730 to outpace a late challenge from the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell by 0.068 seconds.

It marked Derani’s second pole of the season in the GTP class contender that he’ll share with Alexander Sims.

Campbell denied Cadillac a front-row lockout, with Sebastien Bourdais qualifying third in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac, followed by Filipe Albuquerque in fourth in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06.

Connor De Phillippi completed the top-five in the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, ahead of Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura.

George Kurtz earned his second LMP2 class pole of the season, in a commanding run in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca 07 Gibson.

Kurtz recorded a best lap of 1:53.621 to outpace the the No. 8 Tower Motorsport Oreca of Rodrigo Sales by 0.508 seconds.

LMP3 class pole honors went to the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Nico Pino, who is filling in for Lance Willsey this weekend.

Riberas, Snow Take GT Class Poles

Alex Riberas claimed GTD Pro class pole honors as the quickest production-based car in qualifying.

The Heart of Racing driver reeled off a best lap of 2:02.918 in his No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to edge out the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Dani Juncadella by 0.057 seconds.

Jordan Taylor qualified third in class in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD.

GTD class pole honors went to the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Madison Snow, thanks to a 2:03.291 lap time by the Silver-rated driver.

Snow’s time was some 0.091 seconds quicker than the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Brendan Iribe, who qualified a career-best second in class and sixth in the GT cars.

The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Frankie Montecalvo will start third in GTD, behind the sister No. 14 Lexus of Jack Hawksworth, who completed the top-five in the combined ranks.

The two-hour and 40-minute race gets underway Sunday at 10:10 a.m. CDT with live coverage on USA Network.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John