Ford Locks Out GTLM Front Row

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing has locked out the front row in GT Le Mans for Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase, with Dirk Mueller storming to pole for the ninth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

The German took his No. 66 Ford GT to a fast time of 2:02.479, edging out the sister, Ryan Briscoe-driven No. 67 entry of Ryan Briscoe by 0.171 seconds. 

It marked class championship leader Mueller’s first WeatherTech Championship pole of the season and third in a row at the Wisconsin track.

“Having the three in a row here feels really great and I’m really thrilled and happy,”he said.

“Maybe it’s because I’m German and I do like the Nordschleife, that’s definitely one of my favorite places in the world.

“Over here, it’s definitely Road America and there’s a lot of corners and places where it looks the same.”

Antonio Garcia put his No. 3 Corvette C7.R third on the grid in class, ahead of Laurens Vanthoor, who made a late improvement in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR to qualify fourth, with Oliver Gavin’s No. 4 Corvette completing the top-five.

The pair of BMW M8 GTEs qualified sixth and seventh, with the No. 911 Porsche set to bring up the rear in qualifying.

Long Takes Second Consecutive GTD Pole

Patrick Long claimed his second consecutive pole in GT Daytona, in a stop-start qualifying session for the Pro-Am-enforced class.

Long laid down a quick lap of 2:06.593 in the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, edging out the No. 14 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Dominik Baumann by 0.257 seconds.

Madison Snow qualified third in the class championship-leading No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

The session was red flagged following an accident for the No. 51 Squadra Corsa Garage Italia Ferrari 488 GT3 of Francesco Piovanetti, who made impact with the barriers.

It restarted with three minutes on the clock, with only a few improvements.

The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase gets underway Sunday at 1:35 p.m. CDT, with live coverage on FS1.

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