Neser, O’Brien Take Road America Poles

Photo: Dan Bathie/McLaren

Sam Neser and Michael O’Brien have claimed overall pole positions for this weekend’s pair of McLaren Trophy America races at Road America.

Neser took his Pro class No. 74 RWE Motorsport McLaren Artura Trophy EVO to a fast lap of 2:07.961 to edge out the No. 8 Forte Racing entry of Kaia Teo by a mere 0.006 seconds.

This came despite both cars, along with the No. 98 Bryan Herta Autosport and No. 6 Motorsport In Action entries were all given a five-minute hold at the start of Q1 due to taking the checkered flag more than once in a practice session earlier in the weekend.

Jeff Cook took Am class pole with the third quickest time overall in Q1 in his GMG Racing entry, followed by Cooper Broll and Colin Harrison, who completed the overall top-five.

Pro class points leader Tanner Harvey was sixth, with Alexandra Hainer scoring Pro-Am class pole honors in the No. 43 MIA McLaren, which will start Race 1 from seventh on the grid.

In addition to the five-minute hold and a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, the No. 98 BHA McLaren lost all times in Q1 due to unauthorized work on the car during qualifying.

Q2 saw Thursday pace setter O’Brien take overall pole, thanks to a benchmark 2:07.464 in the Pro-Am class No. 7 GMG McLaren.

It was some four-tenths clear of Pro pole-sitter Patrick Liddy, who qualified second overall, ahead of Hooper Street Racing driver Matt Bell.

Jesse Lazare and Kevin Madsen completed the overall top-five for MIA and Relapsing Polychondritis Motorsports/Forte Racing, respectively.

Johnny O’Connell, meanwhile, claimed Am class pole honors for Race 2 in his No. 29 Flying Lizard Motorsports entry.

As was the case with four cars in Q1, the No. 6 MIA was forced to serve a second five-minute hold in Q2 for taking more than one checkered flag.

Race 1 takes the green flag at 3:10 p.m. CST, with Race 2 on tap for Sunday at 10 a.m. CST, both which will be streamed live on McLaren Automotive and SRO’s GT World YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1/Qualifying 2

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