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Motorsport
Motorsport
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David Malsher-Lopez

Long Beach IMSA: Brilliant Bourdais takes record-breaking pole

At the start of the session, Tom Blomqvist went straight on at Turn 1 in his efforts to get the Acura ARX-05 of Meyer Shank Racing onto the front row, and Filipe Albuquerque slid along the wall exiting Turn 5 as he tried extracting the max from the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. They were both making great efforts, but were on the back foot as everyone was shooting at Pipo Derani in the Action Express Racing Cadillac, whose top effort, a 1min10.001sec, was a new DPi qualifying record for the 1.968-mile track.

That record lasted for only minutes however, as the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs were on the prowl. Sure enough, Sebastien Bourdais – who won the Grand Prix of Long Beach three times in his open-wheel career – delivered a sensational 69.472sec to eclipse Derani’s time by over half a second. In the #02 Ganassi entry, IMSA rookie Alex Lynn was also seriously impressive in his first weekend at Long Beach, eventually finishing up 0.361sec behind Bourdais.

That last-gasp effort from Lynn deposed Blomqvist who nonetheless can be proud to have broken up the all-Cadillac party with a car whose characteristics don’t suit the nature of Long Beach layout and track surface.

Derani will roll off fourth ahead of Vautier and Albuquerque

Jordan Taylor delivered the fastest time in a thrilling GT qualifying session, the sole Corvette C8.R clocking a 1min18.048sec lap on its final tour of the 1.968-mile circuit. That was enough to leave him 0.067sec clear of Connor De Phillippi in the ‘works’ Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M4 and 0.125sec faster than the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Mathieu Jaminet.

Ross Gunn, FP1 pacesetter for Heart of Racing, slotted into fourth in the Aston Martin Vantage, just ahead of the fastest GTD cars – a pair of BMW M4s. Madison Snow of Paul Miller Racing edged Robby Foley of Turner Motorsports by just over a tenth of a second.

Next up was the fastest of the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC Fs, Jack Hawksworth’s GTD Pro entry, while Mike Skeen was third fastest GTD, seventh overall in GT, in the quickest Mercedes AMG GT3, the Team Korthoff Motorsports car.

Cla Driver Class Chassis Laps Time Gap
1 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
France Sébastien Bourdais
DPi Cadillac DPi 6 1'09.472  
2 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
DPi Cadillac DPi 7 1'09.833 0.361
3 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
DPi Acura DPi 10 1'09.939 0.467
4 Brazil Pipo Derani
United States Tristan Nunez
DPi Cadillac DPi 5 1'10.001 0.529
5 France Tristan Vautier
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
DPi Cadillac DPi 11 1'10.376 0.904
6 United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
DPi Acura DPi 8 1'10.576 1.104
7 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
GTD PRO Corvette C8.R GTD 12 1'18.048 8.576
8 United States Connor de Phillippi
United States John Edwards
GTD PRO BMW M4 GT3 6 1'18.115 8.643
9 Australia Matt Campbell
France Mathieu Jaminet
GTD PRO Porsche 911 GT3 R 7 1'18.173 8.701
10 United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Spain Alex Riberas
GTD PRO Aston Martin Vantage GT3 8 1'18.437 8.965
11 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
GTD BMW M4 GT3 10 1'18.487 9.015
12 United States Robby Foley
United States Bill Auberlen
GTD BMW M4 GT3 9 1'18.599 9.127
13 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
GTD PRO Lexus RC F GT3 11 1'18.627 9.155
14 United States Mike Skeen
United Kingdom Stevan McAleer
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 10 1'18.918 9.446
15 Jon Miller
United States Paul Holton
GTD McLaren 720S GT3 11 1'18.932 9.460
16 United States Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 8 1'18.973 9.501
17 Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Marc Miller
GTD Acura NSX GT3 11 1'19.146 9.674
18 Canada Roman De Angelis
Belgium Maxime Martin
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 10 1'19.181 9.709
19 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Aaron Telitz
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 12 1'19.181 9.709
20 United States Ryan Eversley
Australia Aidan Read
GTD Acura NSX GT3 12 1'19.366 9.894
21 United States Brendan Iribe
Switzerland Frederik Schandorff
GTD McLaren 720S GT3 9 1'19.385 9.913
22 United States Robert Megennis
United States Jeff Westphal
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 9 1'19.742 10.270
23 United States Cooper MacNeil
Italy Raffaele Marciello
GTD PRO Mercedes-AMG GT3 12 1'19.743 10.271
24 United States Ryan Hardwick
Belgium Jan Heylen
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 12 1'20.072 10.600
25 United States Rob Ferriol
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 10 1'21.079 11.607
26 Kyle Washington
United States James Sofronas
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 11 1'23.938 14.466
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