Tandy Takes Porsche to GTLM Pole at Long Beach

Photo: Porsche

Nick Tandy has taken Porsche to the GT Le Mans class pole for Saturday’s Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix, in a new class qualifying lap record at Long Beach and sweep of the front row for the German manufacturer.

The Englishman reeled off a 1:16.313 in the heated 15-minute qualifying session to edge out the No. 912 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor by 0.064 seconds.

Vanthoor’s 1:16.377 lap time, with seconds left on the clock, bumped the No. 4 Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin from the front row to third on the grid.

It marked the third consecutive class pole for the No. 911 Porsche in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition, following Tandy’s pole in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and co-driver Patrick Pilet’s top qualifying run at Sebring.

The pairing head into the 100-minute street fight as the defacto championship leaders.

Sebastien Bourdais, who is subbing for Joey Hand this weekend, qualified an impressive fourth in the No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, followed by defending class champion Jan Magnussen, who completed the top-five, which was separated by just 0.372 seconds.

The Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach gets underway Saturday at 2 p.m. PT.

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