Jeansonne Steals Race 1 Pole in Tight Qualifying Battle

Aaron Jeansonne stole pole position for the first race of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta to lead at Kellymoss 1-2 in a tight qualifying battle on Thursday morning.

Riley Dickinson jumped to the top of the pile on his fourth lap around the 2.54-mile circuit before his rookie teammate Jeansonne reeled off his benchmark 1:21.136 time in his penultimate lap aboard the No. 24 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car to secure pole position by 0.135 seconds.

With Dickinson in second, Topp Racing’s Tyler Maxson was third-quickest overall, despite having spent time at the top of the time sheets earlier in the session.

Pro class points-leader Ryan Yardley was fourth for Topp, while Zachary Vanier rounded out the overall top five for JDX Racing.

Pro-Am practice pace-leader Alan Metni continued his run of form to put himself and his No. 99 Kellymoss Porsche on the class pole position by just 0.032 seconds over GMG Racing’s Patrick Mulcahy.

Having already wrapped up his Masters class drivers’ championship at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Scott Blind took his No. 45 Ruckus Racing GT3 Cup car to the class pole for Race 1, comfortably ahead of Chris Bellomo.

Multiple drivers explored the limit of grip attempting to set their fast times, with Mulcahy going off at Turn 10 before continuing on, before Joel Johnson and Todd Parriott separately spun at Turn 1 and continued.

Metni also survived an off at Turn 3 near the end of the session, which ran entirely green, despite the handful of spins and off-track excursions.

Race 1 of the weekend is slated for 5:05 p.m. EST and will feature live coverage on Peacock as well as Porsche Motorsport North America and IMSA’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Qualifying