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David Malsher-Lopez

Lime Rock IMSA: Pfaff Porsche and VS Lexus take poles

Jordan Taylor in the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R was the first GTD Pro driver to show his hand, taking first with a 51.302sec lap, until Ross Gunn’s Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage edged him by just 0.021sec.

Then Matt Campbell in the Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R set a 51.079sec lap to take P1, and the returning Jack Hawksworth zoomed up to second in the #14 Lexus RC F of Vasser Sullivan. He fell 0.018sec at his first attempt, but appeared set to improve until a slow third sector, while Gunn and Taylor pitted.

That meant Connor De Phillippi was unopposed as he claimed third in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M4. Campbell pitted with two minutes to go, leaving Hawksworth and De Phillippi to make their last assaults on the Porsche driver’s benchmark. De Phillippi fell short and pitted and although Hawksworth gamely plugged on, his Michelins were past their best.

The GTD class battle at first appeared distilled to a battle between Stevan McAleer in the Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 and the similar car of Winward Racing, as driven by Russell Ward. With 10mins to go, they were just 0.121sec apart. But then the BMW M4s of Paul Miller Racing and Turner Motorsports made their presence felt, Robby Foley in the latter car taking top spot with a 51.490sec.

Also entering the fray was Robert Megennis driving the Carbahn with Peregrine Racing machine who moved to second in class… which briefly became third as Roman De Angelis put the second HoR Aston on top, before Megennis improved again to take first.

Frankie Montecalvo in the #12 Lexus was around 0.35sec slower than his GTD Pro stablemate Hawksworth, but that was enough to claim pole from Megennis by a mere 0.006sec.

De Angelis held on to third for HoR, while even fourth place Foley was only 0.031sec away from P1.

Warm-up is on Saturday at 9.05am local (Eastern) time, with the race to follow at 3.10pm.

Cla Driver Class Chassis Time Gap
1 Australia Matt Campbell
France Mathieu Jaminet
GTD PRO Porsche 911 GT3 R 51.079  
2 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
GTD PRO Lexus RC F GT3 51.097 0.018
3 United States Connor de Phillippi
United States John Edwards
GTD PRO BMW M4 GT3 51.227 0.148
4 United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Spain Alex Riberas
GTD PRO Aston Martin Vantage GT3 51.281 0.202
5 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
GTD PRO Corvette C8.R GTD 51.302 0.223
6 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Aaron Telitz
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 51.459 0.380
7 United States Robert Megennis
United States Jeff Westphal
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 51.465 0.386
8 Canada Roman De Angelis
Belgium Maxime Martin
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 51.477 0.398
9 United States Robby Foley
United States Bill Auberlen
GTD BMW M4 GT3 51.490 0.411
10 United States Mike Skeen
United Kingdom Stevan McAleer
GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 51.516 0.437
11 United States Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis
GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 51.517 0.438
12 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
GTD BMW M4 GT3 51.651 0.572
13 United States Ryan Eversley
Australia Aidan Read
GTD Acura NSX GT3 51.741 0.662
14 United States Cooper MacNeil
France Jules Gounon
GTD PRO Mercedes AMG GT3 52.213 1.134
15 United States Ryan Hardwick
Belgium Jan Heylen
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 52.312 1.233
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