Tincknell Takes First IMSA Pole at Mid-Ohio

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Harry Tincknell has claimed his first career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole in a hard-fought qualifying session for the Acura Sports Car Challenge presented by TLX Type S at Mid-Ohio.

The Englishman took the No. 55 Multimatic-run Mazda RT24-P to a best lap of 1:10.027, edging out the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 of Filipe Albuquerque by 0.095 seconds.

Four of the six DPi runners were on provisional pole at various stages throughout the 15-minute session.

Tincknell will share driving duties with Oliver Jarvis in tomorrow’s first 2 hour and 40-minute race of the season.

Dane Cameron qualified the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 third ahead of Friday’s pace-sitting No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Pipo Derani in fourth.

The No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac of Tristan Vautier completed the top-five ahead of ex-Formula 1 ace Kevin Magnussen in sixth.  

Gar Robinson scored top pole honors in LMP3, with the Silver-rated driver holding off a late improvement by Jon Bennett.

Robinson took his No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan to a best lap of 1:17.246, which was 0.386 seconds quicker than the CORE autosport team owner/driver.

Jarett Andretti qualified third in the debuting No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier, ahead of Dan Goldburg in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.

Telitz Scores Pole, Long Earns Top Points in GTD Qualifying

While Aaron Telitz will start from class pole, Patrick Long extended his GT Daytona championship lead by setting the quickest time in the points-paying second session.

Telitz reeled off a 1:20.529 in his No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, edging out the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Robby Foley in Q1 to claim the Motul Pole Award.

Daniel Morad is set to start third in the No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

A 1:20.083 lap time by Long, in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R set in Q2, saw the Porsche factory driver claim the maximum 35 points in the new-for-2021 GTD qualifying format.

Long edged out the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Zach Veach by 0.126 seconds, with Laurens Vanthoor third in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche.

Championship rival Ross Gunn in the No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, set the seventh quickest time in class.

The Acura Sports Car Challenge presented by TLX Type S gets underway Sunday at 2:40 p.m. ET with live coverage on NBCSN and on IMSA Radio.

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