Campbell Leads Three-Class Porsche Qualifying Sweep

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Matt Campbell led a Porsche qualifying lockout across three classes for Sunday’s Motul Course de Monterey powered by Hyundai N, giving Porsche Penske Motorsport its first pole position in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Campbell reeled off a best lap of 1:14.774 to lead a front-row sweep for the pair of Porsche 963s, with the Australian 0.090 seconds quicker than teammate Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 Porsche.

With Klaus Bachler (GTD Pro) and Alec Udell (GTD) claiming pole honors in their respective classes, it marked the first time in WeatherTech Championship history that a manufacturer claimed three class pole positions for a race.

Colin Braun will start third overall in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, ahead of Pipo Derani’s No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R and the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura of Ricky Taylor, who completed the top-five.

The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais was sixth, ahead of the best of the BMW M Hybrid V8s from the No. 26 Team RLL entry of Connor De Phullippi.

JDC-Miller’s debuting Porsche 963 brought up the rear of the nine-car GTP class, qualified by Tijmen van der Helm.

LMP2 class pole honors went to George Kurtz, who snatched the top spot away from Ben Keating after the Texan lost his best lap due to exceeding track limits.

Kurtz, in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca 07 Gibson, reeled off a 1:19.262 time in his final flying lap to edge out Keating by 0.061 seconds.

It marked Kurtz’s first career WeatherTech Championship pole in the Algarve Pro Racing-prepared car that he’ll share with Ben Hanley tomorrow.

Keating will start second in class in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca, with his second-best time of 1:19.323 outpacing TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas by four-tenths.

Porsche Entries Sweep GT Class Poles

Bachler and Udell claimed top qualifying honors in the production-based ranks, both in Porsche 911 GT3 R machinery.

Bachler took his GTD Pro class No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche to a best lap of 1:24.529, edging out Udell’s No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley GTD entry by 0.010 seconds.

The Austrian, in his Laguna Seca debut, will share driving duties with Patrick Pilet, with Julien Andlauer joining Udell in the Kellymoss with Riley entry this weekend.

Defending GTD champion Roman De Angelis, who held provisional pole for the majority of the 15-minute session, will roll off third on the combined GT grid in the No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

De Angelis’ teammate Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Aston was fourth and second in GTD Pro, with WeatherTech Racing’s Dani Juncadella completing the top-five with a fourth place run in class.

The top 13 GT cars were separated by less than one second in qualifying.

The Motul Course de Monterey powered by Hyundai N gets underway Sunday at 12 p.m. PT (3 p.m. ET) with live coverage on NBC and IMSA Radio.

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