Taylor, Jarvis Give Acura Front Row Lockout at Laguna

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Ricky Taylor and Oliver Jarvis gave Acura a front row sweep for Sunday’s Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The Wayne Taylor Racing driver stormed to a 1:13.924 to edge out Jarvis, in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05, by 0.089 seconds. 

It marked Taylor’s second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole of the season after taking top honors in the Rolex 24 qualifying race alongside full-season driver Filipe Albuquerque. 

Alex Lynn managed to be best of the rest in the DPi championship-leading No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. 

The Englishman came within 0.059 seconds of Jarvis, with teammate Sebastien Bourdais qualifying fourth in the Long Beach-winning No. 01 CGR entry.

Tristan Vautier completed the top-five in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac, ahead of Tristan Nunez’s No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac in sixth.

LMP2 saw a 1-2 sweep for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, led by Steven Thomas in the No. 11 Oreca 07 Gibson.

Thomas’ 1:17.571 lap was within two-tenths of Patrick Kelly, who is making his first start of the season in the team’s No. 52 Oreca alongside 16-year-old Josh Pierson.

The No. 81 DragonSpeed entry of Henrik Hedman will roll off from third on the grid.

Jaminet, Ward Take GTD Pro, GTD Poles

Mathieu Jaminet took the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R to GTD Pro class pole, edging out Dani Juncadella and Alex Riberas.

The Porsche factory driver reeled off a 1:23.142 to edge out Juncadella, in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo by 0.022 seconds.

Riberas, who held provisional pole for the majority of the 15-minute session, ended up third in his Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which is seeking its second consecutive class win.

Russell Ward jumped to the GTD pole for Winward Racing, thanks to a 1:23.567 lap time in the closing moments.

The Silver-rated driver was two-tenths ahead of Jaden Conwright, who made a last-lap improvement to second in the No. 42 NTE Sport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

Ward’s time was good enough for fourth among the cars in the production-based ranks, ahead of experienced factory drivers John Edwards, Jack Hawksworth and Jordan Taylor.

Taylor qualified the GTD Pro championship-leading No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD, carrying 20 kg of additional weight this weekend, 13th amongst the combined 20-car GTD Pro/GTD field.

The Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship gets underway Sunday at 12:10 p.m. PT (3:10 p.m. ET) with live coverage on NBC.

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