Heinrich Claims Road Atlanta Pole

Laurin Heinrich secured pole position for the first Porsche Carrera Cup North America Presented by The Cayman Islands race of the weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Heinrich’s best lap of 1:20.089 placed his No. 12 311RS Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup ahead of Wednesday practice pace-setter Riley Dickinson by 0.297 seconds.

Parker Thompson drove his No. 9 JDX Racing car to third overall on the timing sheets. Trenton Estep and Pro class championship leader Kay van Berlo rounded out the top five.

Alan Metni claimed pole position in the Pro-Am class behind the wheel of his No. 99 Kelly-Moss entry.

His 1:21.856 lap time was quick enough to place him 11th overall on the timing sheets. Behind him, Efrin Castro and Topp Racing’s Jeff Mosing qualified second and third in-class.

Am class pole honors went to John Goetz in the No. 57 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

Running in qualifying was cut short as the red flag was brought out with three minutes remaining in the session.

The incident involved the No. 23 entry of PJ Hyett who went off track at Turn 5, resulting in his Kelly-Moss Porsche landing upside down.

Hyett was evaluated and released from the on-site medical center following the crash.

With the field on fresh sets of Michelins, lap times tumbled from practice, where competitors were allowed to use older tire sets from previous events.

Pole-sitters in all three classes significantly improved their times from Wednesday’s practice sessions.

With championships in all three classes still undecided, there are 56 possible points up for grab in the final two rounds of the season.

Race 1 gets underway at 6 p.m. ET with live coverage on PorscheCarreraCup.us and IMSA.tv.

RESULTS: Qualifying