Albuquerque Leads Acura Front Row Sweep at Laguna Seca

Photo: IMSA

Filipe Albuquerque led a front row sweep for Acura DPi teams for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The Wayne Taylor Racing driver stormed to a best lap of 1:14.441 in his No. 10 Acura ARX-05 to edge out Dane Cameron in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura by 0.023 seconds.

It marked Acura’s third consecutive pole at Laguna Seca as the manufacturer seeks its third straight race win at the circuit.

Albuquerque, who will share driving duties with co-championship leader Ricky Taylor, recorded his first career WeatherTech Championship pole in the process.

Kevin Magnussen qualified third in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, followed by the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P of Harry Tincknell.

The No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani could only muster the fifth quickest time in the session, nearly one second off the pace.

Keating, Taylor Take LMP2, GTLM Class Poles

LMP2 saw Ben Keating score another pole in his No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson, qualifying more than 2.5 seconds faster than the closest competition.

Keating’s 1:17.227 lap was 2.646 seconds quicker than the No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca of Dwight Merriman who was second.

The No. 11 WIN Autosport Oreca of Steven Thomas posted the third quickest time in class.

Jordan Taylor, meanwhile, scored his fourth consecutive pole in GT Le Mans, taking Corvette Racing to a 1-2 run in class.

Taylor’s 1:21.151 lap time edged out teammate Tommy Milner by 0.116 seconds.

The No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Cooper MacNeil got within eight-tenths of Taylor’s pole time.

Hindman Claims Pole, Vanthoor Quickest in GTD

Trent Hindman claimed top qualifying honors in the battle to the pole position, while Laurens Vanthoor scored maximum qualifying points despite not setting the quickest time in class.

Hindman reeled off a 1:24.505 lap time in his No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R to edge out class championship leader Robby Foley by 0.063 seconds.

Roman De Angelis will start third in class in his No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 followed by the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Madison Snow in fourth.

The No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo of Richard Heistand will start fifth in class.

Gunn’s 2:23.805 lap time in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin edged out the Pfaff Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor by 0.067 seconds.

However, the Aston Martin Racing factory driver exited the car before the checkered flag, resulting in a loss of Gunn’s qualifying time.

The two-hour and 40-minute race gets underway Sunday at 4 p.m. ET with live coverage on NBCSN and IMSA Radio.

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