Niederhauser Claims Indy 8H Pole in Pro-Am Porsche

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Patric Niederhauser has claimed pole for Saturday’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS, putting Herberth Motorsport’s Pro-Am class Porsche 911 GT3 R on top for the Intercontinental GT Challenge and Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season finale.

The Swiss driver reeled off a blazing 1:22.564 lap time in the No. 10 Porsche to edge out Alex Palou’s No. 4 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo by 0.114 seconds.

Niederhauser will share driving duties of the GMG Racing-assisted entry with Loek Hartog and Bronze-rated Antares Au, who currently leads the IGTC Independent Cup.

It marked the second consecutive year that a Pro-Am class Porsche claimed overall pole honors for the race following Laurin Heinrich’s run last year.

Heinrich, meanwhile, set the third quickest time in Saturday’s Pole Shootout in the Fanatec GT America Pro class championship-leading No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

The No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Dries Vanthoor was fourth, ahead of Arjun Maini’s No. 888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG, which completed the top-five.

Maro Engel qualified sixth in the No. 130 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG, while Philipp Eng’s No. 28 ST Racing BMW will roll off the grid seventh, ahead of the No. 33 WRT BMW of Daniel Harper, which only arrived at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday afternoon.

Both Connor De Phillippi and Trent Hindman, which turned lap times early in the 15-minute session, brought up the rear of the order in their Random Vandals Racing BMW and RS1 Porsche, respectively.

The remainder of the grid was set in qualifying earlier in the afternoon, with the Pro-Am class No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG set to start 11th overall in the 23-car starting field.

The Indianapolis 8 Hour gets underway Saturday at 12:15 p.m. EDT with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.

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