Vilander Storms to Long Beach Pole

Photo: Brian Cleary/PWC

Toni Vilander will start tomorrow’s Pirelli World Challenge round on the streets of Long Beach from the pole after storming to the top spot in qualifying Saturday.

The Finn reeled off a best lap of 1:18.496 in his No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, outpacing the No. 2 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Daniel Morad bu 0.206 seconds.

It marked Vilander’s second career PWC pole in as many street circuit starts in the Sprint series, after taking top qualifying honors last month at St. Pete.

Daniel Mancinelli, in his series return, made it two Ferraris in the top-three, with Alec Udell fourth in the No. 41 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The fifth-placed Michael Christensen, as well as team managers for both the Nos. 54 and 12 Black Swan Racing Porsches, were reported to the stewards at the end of the session following incidents in qualifying.

Yuki Harata impressed in GTA with his first career class pole, pedaling his No. 55 Dream Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to a 1:19.157 lap time.

The Japanese driver edged out Martin Fuentes for the top qualifying honors, who were both quicker than the pair of K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3s, which will start 9th and 10th, respectively.

GTS Invitational pole honors went to the No. 78 Compass Racing McLaren 570S GT4 of Paul Holton, who edged out the No. 69 Racers Edge Motorsports SIN R1 GT4 of Harry Gottsacker by 0.325 seconds.

Spencer Pumpelly qualified third in class in the No. 66 TRG Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR.

The 50-minute Sprint race gets underway Sunday at 10 a.m. PT.

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