Westphal Leads BMW Front Row Lockout at Mid-Ohio

Photo: Tony DiZinno

Jeff Westphal has scored pole for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio, leading a front row lockout for BMW M4 GT4 EVO machinery for the second IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge endurance race of the season.

Westphal, in the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW, recorded a chart-topping 1:25.216 in the 15-minute GS qualifying session to edge out the No. 27 AutoTechnic Racing machine of Stevan McAleer by 0.375 seconds.

It marked a new qualifying track record and was Westphal’s first Pilot Challenge pole since 2011.

Trenton Estep made a late session improvement to third in the No. 66 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo, ahead of Ford Koch’s Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 in fourth.

Moisey Uretsky completed the top-five in his Ibiza Farm Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4.

Top qualifying honors in TCR for the second time this season went to Rocco Pasquarella in the No. 5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Honda Civic FL5 TCR, thanks to a 1:26.564 lap time, a new qualifying track record.

It was a mere 0.008 seconds faster than second-placed Bryson Morris in the class points-leading No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR.

Dai Yoshihara made it two Hondas in the top-three in his No. 93 MMG machine.

The pair of Victor Gonzalez Racing CUPRA Leon VZ TCRs from Tyler Gonzalez and Steven Clemons completed the top-five in qualifying.

Sunday’s four-hour race rolls off at 12:15 p.m. ET, streaming live flag-to-flag on Peacock and ad-free courtesy of Michelin via IMSA’s Official YouTube channel.

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