De Phillippi Puts Walkenhorst BMW on Pole for Indy 8H

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Connor De Phillippi has scored pole for the inaugural Indianapolis 8 Hour, having taken top honors in the Pole Shootout for the second round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli season.

The BMW factory driver reeled off a quick lap of 1:23.318 in the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW M6 GT3 to edge out the No. 7 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3 of Jules Gounon by 0.242 seconds.

De Phillippi will share driving duties with full-season IGTC drivers Nicky Catsburg and Augusto Farfus tomorrow.

The No. 30 JAS Motorsport Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Mario Farnbacher qualified third, ahead of Nürburgring 24 winner Nick Yelloly in the sister No. 35 Walkenhorst BMW.

Trent Hindman made a late-session improvement to fifth in the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura after fitting a fresh set of tires in the closing minutes of the 15-minute session.

Racers Edge was one of several teams, including the pole-sitting Walkenhorst BMW, to opt for a tire change in the session, which negated the car’s previous times.

The No. 1 Squadra Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 — one of three GT World Challenge America powered by AWS points-scoring cars entered in the race — qualified sixth ahead of the No. 31 Team Hardpoint WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo of Mirko Bortolotti.

The Audi, however, will face a five-position grid penalty due to an incident between Spencer Pumpelly and the No. 2 GMG Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport of Jason Bell in Q2.

It will promote the No. 63 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a seventh starting position, thanks to Ryan Dalziel’s 1:24.215 lap time in Pole Shootout.

Americans Max Root and Jeff Westphal completed the top-ten in times, driving for Wright Motorsports and Vital Speed, respectively.

A total of 22 cars will take the start, with positions 12th on back decided in a qualifying session held earlier today.

The Indianapolis 8 Hour gets underway Sunday at 10 a.m. EDT with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube page and on CBS Sports Network.

RESULTS: Pole Shootout

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