Blomqvist Takes Indianapolis Pole; GT Qualifying Abandoned

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Tom Blomqvist grabbed pole for Sunday’s TireRack Battle on the Bricks, in a weather-affected session that was abandoned for both the GTD Pro and GTD classes.

Blomqvist took the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 to a chart-topping 1:14.674 to outpace the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of GTP points leader Jack Aitken by 0.301 seconds.

It marked Blomqvist’s first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole since last year’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans.

Dries Vanthoor will start third in the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, followed by the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Louis Deletraz and Nick Yelloly’s No. 93 Acura, which completed the top-five.

Julien Andlauer had the quickest Porsche 963, with the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry set to line up sixth, ahead of WTR’s Filipe Albuquerque and the No. 6 Penske Porsche of Kevin Estre, which has title contender Laurin Heinrich in the lineup this weekend.

The No. 25 BMW of Philipp Eng was ninth, while the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie of Ross Gunn and Tijmen van der Helm’s JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche bringing up the rear of the 11-car GTP field.

Jeremy Clarke claimed top qualifying honors in LMP2, thanks to a 1:17.555 lap time in his No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 Gibson.

Clarke edged out the No. 22 United Autosports entry of Daniel Goldburg by 0.158 seconds, who lost his fastest time due to co-driver Paul di Resta bringing out a red flag in Practice 2.

Goldburg’s second-best time was still good enough to retain second on the grid.

Clarke took his third LMP2 pole in the last four races, and fourth of the season, in the car he’ll share with Tom Dillmann in the two-hour and 40-minute contest.

PJ Hyett will start third in the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca, followed by the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry of Misha Goikhberg.

While the session ran to its duration, John Farano made contact with the Turn 6 barriers with four minutes to go, having sustained rear-end damage to his Oreca, but managed to limp the car back to the pits.

Both GTD Pro and GTD qualifying sessions, meanwhile, were abandoned due to lightning in the area, with both classes set to line up based on team championship points.

This was made because of a time-sensitive schedule, due to the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America race that was still to run before the sunset cut-off time.

It will put the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO on pole in GTD Pro, with the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo set to start at the front in GTD.

Despite the weather hold, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval/road course did not receive enough precipitation to require wet-weather Michelin tires in qualifying for the prototype classes.

The TireRack Battle of the Bricks is set for a 3 p.m. EST start on Sunday with live coverage on network NBC, streaming on Peacock, as well as internationally on IMSA’s 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