Albuquerque Storms to Road America Pole

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Filipe Albuquerque will start Sunday’s IMSA Fastlane Sportscar Weekend from the pole following a near record-breaking lap by the Wayne Taylor Racing driver in qualifying at Road America.

The Portuguese ace stormed to a 1:48.915 lap in the No. 10 Acura ARX-05 to edge out the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Alex Lynn by 0.182 seconds.

It marked the third WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole of the season for WTR and its first since WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in May.

The DPi/LMP2 qualifying session came to an early end when Sebastien Bourdais ran wide into the entry of Turn 14 before going off into the tire barriers in his No. 01 CGR Cadillac with less than three minutes to go.

Bourdais climbed from the car uninjured but was unable to bring the car back to the pits.

The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura DPi of Tom Blomqvist is set to start third ahead of the Richard Westbrook-qualified No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac in fourth. Olivier Pla completed the top-five in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac.

Steven Thomas claimed top qualifying honors in LMP2, taking his No. 11 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson to a fast lap of 1:54.137 to edge out teammate Patrick Kelly in the No. 52 entry.

The No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca of Dwight Merriman will start third in class.

LMP3 class pole went to the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Malthe Jakobsen, who recorded a 1:59.434 lap time to give the team its first top qualifying run in series competition.

Jakobsen’s lap was a considerable 0.729 seconds faster than the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier of Jarett Andretti, with Gar Robinson qualifying third in class in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports entry.

Hawksworth, Foley Take GTD Pro, GTD Class Poles

Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth claimed top qualifying honors in GTD Pro while Robby Foley took his Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 to the class pole in GTD.

Hawksworth, in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3, reeled off a best lap of 2:05.365 in the closing moments of the session, edging out GTD Pro championship leader Matt Campbell in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R by 0.253 seconds.

Antonio Garcia qualified third in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD after putting down a benchmark 2:05.829 lap time early in the 15-minute session.

Foley’s 2:06.084 was good enough for fourth quickest amongst the production-based cars and fourth overall, ahead of the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo.

Robert Megennis will start third in class in the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo ahead of GTD points leader Stevan McAleer in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in fourth.

The IMSA Fastlane Sportscar Weekend gets underway Sunday at 10:40 a.m. CT (11:40 a.m. ET) with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA Radio. USA Network coverage begins at 12 p.m. ET.

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