Gavin Claims GTLM Pole at Laguna

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Oliver Gavin gave Corvette Racing GT Le Mans class pole honors for Sunday’s America’s Tire 250 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, in a closely fought qualifying session for the production-based class.

The Englishman took the No. 4 Corvette C7.R to a quick lap of 1:22.700 early in the 15-minute session.

It was enough to withstand a late challenge from the No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Dirk Mueller by just 0.087 seconds.

Gavin, who scored his first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole since 2015, will share driving duties with Tommy Milner in tomorrow’s two-hour and 40-minute race.

Points leader Jan Magnussen put the No. 3 Corvette third on the grid, ahead of the No. 67 Ford, qualified by Ryan Briscoe, while Alexander Sims completed the top-five in the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE.

The pair of Porsche 911 RSRs will start sixth and seventh, qualified by Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber, respectively.

Legge Storms to GTD Pole for Acura

Katherine Legge claimed her first career pole in GT Daytona, taking the championship-contending Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 to the top.

Legge reeled off a 1:24.456 in the No. 86 Acura to edge out points leader Madison Snow, in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3, by 0.139 seconds.

It marked Acura and MSR’s first class pole of the season.

Jeroen Bleekemolen qualified third in the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, followed by the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long in fourth.

The No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche of Patrick Lindsey completed the top-five, which was separated by less than a half-second.

The America’s Tire 250 gets underway Sunday at 2:05 p.m. PDT (5:05 p.m. EDT).

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