Bamber Leads Cadillac Front Row Sweep in Detroit

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Earl Bamber led a front row sweep for Cadillac after both Penske Porsche 963s hit trouble in a red flag-shortened qualifying for Saturday’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.

Bamber’s 1:05.313 lap time in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R edged out the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing entry of Louis Deletraz by 0.322 seconds to give the Kiwi his first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP pole.

It came after Felipe Nasr drove partially into the Turn 1 run-off in the closing minutes of the 15-minute session, which was immediately followed by Kevin Estre slamming into the Turn 2 wall after passing his stricken teammate.

The red flag, which came out with four minutes to go, resulted in Estre losing his two fastest laps as a result, dropping the No. 6 Porsche to a 10th place result.

Nasr also lost his quickest lap, but due to the car bringing out a red flag in opening practice for debris.

Nick Yelloly qualified the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 in third, ahead of the pair of Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s, which completed the top-five in the hands of Marco Wittmann and Sheldon van der Linde, respectively.

MSR’s Tom Blomqvist qualified sixth in the No. 60 Acura, ahead of the No. 10 WTR Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque and Nasr’s No. 7 Porsche.

Ross Gunn was ninth in the sole Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie.

The JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche, which will roll off from 11th on the grid, was handed a five-minute stop-and-hold penalty in qualifying for failure to perform the torque sensor offset test.

Corvette Takes Front Row Lockout in GTD Pro

Alexander Sims led a front-row lockout for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in GTD Pro.

Sims reeled off a best lap of 1:09.354 in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R to edge out teammate Tommy Milner in the No. 4 entry by 0.043 seconds.

The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Ben Barnicoat was best of the rest in third, but more than three-tenths adrift.

The pair of Multimatic Motorsports-run Ford Mustang GT3 EVOs completed the top-five in the hands of Ben Barker and Fred Vervisch, respectively.

It came despite an excursion into the Turn 1 runoff for the Belgian driver.

Paul Miller Racing’s Neil Verhagen qualified sixth in class, despite losing his quickest time due to bringing out a red flag for an accident in second practice.

Verhagen’s best lap was a 1:09.782, which initially tied with Vervisch, but instead ended up dead even with the No. 15 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Chaz Mostert at a 1:09.961.

The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 of Sandy Mitchell also lost its fastest time due to a red flag stoppage.

The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic gets underway Saturday at 4 p.m. EST with live coverage on network NBC and on Peacock.

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