Taylor Claims Pole in Penske Acura Front Row Sweep

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Ricky Taylor has claimed pole for Sunday’s IMSA Road Race Showcase at Road America in a front row sweep for Acura Team Penske.

Taylor took his No. 7 Acura ARX-05 to a best lap of 1:49.061 in the 15-minute session, which was interrupted by a spin for Felipe Nasr in the closing moments.

Dane Cameron qualified second in the sister Acura DPi, thanks to a 1:49.379 lap time.

It marked Taylor’s first pole since WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca last year and his 20th pole in series competition.

The pair of Mazda RT24-Ps will start third and fourth, with the No. 55 entry of Harry Tincknell ahead of Tristan Nunez’s No. 77 car.

Nasr had set the fifth quickest time but the lap was deleted due to bringing out a red flag for a spin in his No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R in Turn 3.

It relegated the Brazilian to seventh, with Ryan Briscoe ending up as the quickest Cadillac DPi.

The session restarted with less than 1 minute on the clock, with no teams electing to return to the track.

LMP2 pole honors went to the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Patrick Kelly, thanks to a 1:54.474 lap time by the Bronze-rated driver.

Kelly outpaced the No. 81 DragonSpeed entry of Henrik Hedman by nearly one-second.

Porsche, Lexus Take Class Poles

Laurens Vanthoor emerged as the pole-sitter in GT Le Mans following a highly competitive battle for top honors in the session.

Vanthoor stormed to a best lap of 2:00.590 in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR-19, ending up 0.264 seconds ahead of the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor.

It marked Vanthoor’s first pole of the season and second for Porsche after Nick Tandy’s top qualifying run in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The No. 4 Corvette of Oliver Gavin qualified third, ahead of Bruno Spengler in the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE, which was one of five cars to have set the fastest lap in the session.

Aaron Telitz claimed his first career WeatherTech Championship pole in a sweep of the front row in GT Daytona for AIM Vasser Sullivan and Lexus.

The Wisconsin native reeled off a 2:06.251 lap time in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 to edge out teammate Frankie Montecalvo by 0.787 seconds.

It marked the second consecutive pole for the team.

Corey Fergus qualified the No. 76 Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3 in third, ahead of Robby Foley, who bounced back from a brake failure-induced accident in final practice to qualify the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 in fourth.

Gar Robinson completed the top-five in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The IMSA Road Race Showcase gets underway Sunday at 12 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