Sargent Storms to Long Beach Pole

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche

Tom Sargent, in his Porsche Carrera Cup North America return, has claimed pole position for Saturday’s opening round of the weekend on the streets of Long Beach.

The Porsche Motorsport North America Selected driver, making an expected one-off appearance in place of Kyle Washington, reeled off a best time of 1:19.679 in the 30-minute qualifying session.

His No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 Cup car was just 0.030 seconds quicker than Kiwi Callum Hedge, who mounted a late challenge in his JDX Racing entry.

Aaron Jeansonne (Kellymoss) made a last-lap improvement to third, demoting German rising star Janne Stiak (ACI Motorsports) to fourth and Conor Bloum (JDX) to fifth.

Points leader Tyler Maxson, who sat second for much of the session, will start sixth for Saturday’s race, ahead of Topp Racing teammate Cole Kleck and Jared Thomas, of JTR Motorsports Engineering.

Pro-Am class pole honors went to ACI’s Patrick Mulcachy, who qualified an impressive ninth overall, ahead of Pro class runner John Capestro-Dubets, who has switched from GMG to Kellymoss.

ACI’s Marco Cirone, meanwhile, picked up pole in the Masters class.

Race 1 gets underway Saturday at 9:05 a.m. PST (12:05 p.m. EST) with live coverage on Peacock, as well as IMSA and Porsche Motorsport North America’s YouTube channels.

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