Porsche Sweeps Front Row for Michelin GT Challenge

Photo: Porsche

Porsche has swept the front row for the Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, following a pole-winning lap by Fred Makowiecki.

The Frenchman reeled off a quick lap of 1:40.389 in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR-19 to edge out teammate Laurens Vanthoor by 0.130 seconds.

It marked Makowiecki’s second pole in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition and puts the German manufacturer in prime position to defend its overall win at VIR from last year with co-driver Nick Tandy.

Connor De Phillippi made a late improvement to put the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE third on the grid, thanks to a 1:41.095 lap time on his final lap.

It demoted the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor to fourth, with teammate Oliver Gavin completing the top-five overall and in the GT Le Mans class.

Corvette Racing enters this weekend’s two-hour and 40-minute contest on the heels of three consecutive wins with its mid-engined GTE contender.

The No. 24 BMW of John Edwards brought up the rear of the six-car GTLM field, some 1.3 seconds slower than pole-sitter Makowiecki.

Compass McLaren on GTD Pole

Corey Fergus claimed his second career pole in GT Daytona, in a flying effort for the Compass Racing driver.

Fergus took his No. 76 McLaren 720S GT3 to a quick lap of 1:45.236 to edge out the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Robby Foley by 0.074 seconds.

Compass and Fergus claimed top qualifying honors for the first time at Daytona International Speedway last month.

Fergus, in only his fourth WeatherTech Championship start, will share driving duties with McLaren factory driver Paul Holton tomorrow.

The No. 12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Road America class winner Frankie Montecalvo will start third in class, followed by Matt McMurry in the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo in fourth.

Madison Snow, in Paul Miller Racing’s return to the WeatherTech Championship, completed the top-five in the No. 48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

Six different GT3 manufacturers were in the top-seven, thanks to Cooper MacNeil qualifying seventh in his No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020.

Aaron Telitz, meanwhile, qualified sixth in the class championship-leading No. 14 AVS Autosport Lexus.

The top nine cars were separated by less than one second.

The Michelin GT Challenge gets underway Saturday at 2 p.m. ET, with live coverage on Trackpass by NBC Sports Gold, the NBC Sports App and NBCsports.com as well as IMSA Radio and IMSA.tv for international viewers.

NBCSN will carry the race on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET and re-air on Sunday at 10 a.m..

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