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Garcia Storms to Lime Rock Pole in New Track Record

Antonio Garcia scores pole in record-breaking qualifying session at Lime Rock Park…

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Antonio Garcia has claimed pole in a record-breaking qualifying run for GT Le Mans cars at Lime Rock Park ahead of this afternoon’s Northeast Grand Prix.

Garcia recorded a 49.754-second time in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R to score the team’s first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole since the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The Spaniard was one of three drivers to break the 50-second barrier in the session, a first for modern-era GT machinery.

Laurens Vanthoor will line up second, having pedaled his No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR to a best time of 49.920 seconds, ahead of the No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Dirk Mueller in third.

Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook completed the top-five for Corvette and CGR, respectively.

The pair of Team RLL-run BMW M8 GTEs will start sixth and seventh, with Patrick Pilet in eighth in the No. 911 Porsche, which had an accident in the warmup session that immediately preceded qualifying.

Pilet’s 50.656 lap time in qualifying, however, was still within one-second of Garcia’s pole time.

Long on GT Daytona Pole

Patrick Long stormed to the pole in GT Daytona, in a new track qualifying record.

The Porsche factory driver reeled off a 51.491-second lap time in the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R to edge out the pair of 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3s.

It marked the first class pole of the year for Porsche as well as the John Wright-led squad.

Long will share driving duties with Christina Nielsen in this afternoon’s two-hour and 40-minute race.

Dominik Baumann will line up second in class, ahead of teammate Jack Hawksworth, who saw his two-race pole streak come to an end.

The No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Bryan Sellers will start fourth in class, with Cooper MacNeil qualifying a season-best fifth in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3.

The GT-only race gets underway at 3 p.m. EDT, with tape-delayed coverage on FS1 beginning at 4 p.m.

RESULTS: Qualifying

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

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