Blomqvist Leads Acura Front Row Lockout for Petit Le Mans

Photo: Joe Skibinski/IMSA

Tom Blomqvist led a front row lockout for Acura Meyer Shank Racing, in their final IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship outing for the team and manufacturer at Motul Petit Le Mans.

Blomqvist reeled off a chart-topping 1:09.703 in the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 to edge out teammate Nick Yelloly by 0.222 seconds.

While Sheldon van der Linde qualified the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 in third, GTP points leader Jack Aitken crucially was fourth in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

With Laurin Heinrich qualifying seventh, and Aitken gaining four points on the German, it means the Action Express Cadillac will only need to roll off the grid tomorrow for Aitken, Action Express and Cadillac to be crowned GTP champions.

The No. 6 Penske Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor was fifth in qualifying, despite the Belgian losing his quickest lap due to co-drover Kevin Estre being deemed as the cause of an incident in night practice that brought out a red.

Louis Deletraz qualified the No. 40 WTR Cadillac in sixth, ahead of Heinrich, who will now essentially need a miracle in order to be crowned GTP champion.

LMP2 class pole honors went to the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca 07 Gibosn of PJ Hyett, who edged out the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition entry of Jeremy Clarke by 0.223 seconds.

It marked Hyett’s first class pole of the season in the ‘Rockie’-liveried entry that he’ll share with Dane Cameron and Jonny Edgar on Saturday.

Clarke, who was seeking his fifth class pole in seven races, settled for second but crucially gained six points on George Kurtz, who qualified fifth in class in his CrowdStrike by APR entry.

It means Clarke and full season co-driver Tom Dillmann will have a one-position cushion in their championship fight with Kurtz and Alex Quinn.

The No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Oreca of Misha Goikhberg qualified third, ahead of Daniel Goldburg’s No. 22 United Autosports Oreca.

Paul Miller Racing, Winward Take GT Poles

Neil Verhagen gained five points on the GTD Pro class-leading No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R by putting the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO on class pole.

Verhagen reeled off a best lap of 1:18.194 to edge out the No. 68 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi by 0.144 seconds.

Nicky Catsburg qualified third in the points-leading Corvette, followed by the sister entry of Alexander Sims and Harry King’s No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo in fifth.

Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi are now provisionally 42 points out of the lead in GTD Pro.

GTD class pole went to the class championship-leading No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis, thanks to a 1:18.674 lap time.

Ellis was 0.161 seconds quicker than the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Antonio Fuoco, with Aaron Telitz qualifying third in class.

Ellis and co-driver Russell Ward expanded their lead from six to 15 points over the Turner Motorsport duo of Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher, with Foley qualifying fifth.

The GTD session came to an early end with less than three minutes left on the clock when the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari of Brendan Iribe re-ended the Adam Adelson’s No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche on the entry into Turn 10.

Iribe lost his two fastest laps in qualifying due to bringing out a red flag, dropping from 11th to 16th in class.

The 29th Motul Petit Le Mans gets underway Saturday at 12:10 p.m. EST with live coverage on network NBC, Peacock as well as IMSA’s YouTube channel internationally.

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