Watkins Glen IMSA: Blomqvist takes pole in Meyer Shank Acura

Filipe Albuquerque set the initial benchmark in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 with a 1min30.029sec, and then beat himself with a 1min29.744sec. Earl Bamber with 7mins to go slotted the #02 Ganassi into second but half a second from Albuquerque but was hindered on his next lap as he appeared uncertain what Olivier Pla in the Action Express Racing Caddy ahead of him might do.

Tom Blomqvist, Kamui Kobayashi and Sebastien Bourdais left it until almost halfway through the 15min segment to hit the track, but Blomqvist delivered immediately with a 1min29.698sec lap to shade Albuquerque by 0.046sec, and the WTR driver promptly pitted. Blomqvist’s second effort was held up by a meandering LMP2 car, but next time by he delivered a 1min29.580sec to extend his advantage over Albuquerque by 0.164sec. Job done, he pitted.

The Cadillacs were left gasping in comparison although Bourdais hammered in a 1min30.048sec to edge a couple of tenths ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Earl Bamber.

Pla was 0.920sec off top spot in the Action Express Racing Whelen Engineering Cadillac, but still half a second clear of Tristan Vautier in the JDC Miller MotorSports. Kamui Kobayashi ran just three unrepresentative times in the AXR part-time car.

PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports teammates Ben Keating and Steven Thomas had a terrific battle for preeminence in LMP2, the pair ending in that order but only 0.001sec apart. Their constant striving for the perfect lap lifted them more than 1.5sec clear of High Class Racing’s Dennis Andersen, with Frits van Eerd delivering fourth for Racing Team Nederland.

Jarett Andretti was the first of the LMP3 drivers into the 1min40.915sec with the Andretti Autosport Ligier, but he was soon displaced by Josh Sarchet in the MLT Motorsports car and Nico Varrone of FastMD Racing. Indeed, the latter’s Duqueine then vaulted to the top by over half a second on its second flyer.

Then Andretti lost his chance to usurp Varrone and get onto the front row in class, when the car writhed out of his control while exiting the final turn and, with a bent left-rear, hobbled into the Turn 1 runoff which caused a red flag. That caused him to lose his two best times and for the LMP3 qualifying session to end with Varrone ahead of Sarchet, and Jon Bennett claiming third in the CORE autosport Ligier.

Just 21 of the 23 GT cars hit the track in qualifying, thanks to Hardpoint and Gradient teams having to rebuild their Porsche and Acura respectively following their shunt in FP2 this morning.

Stevan McAleer in the GTD Team Korthoff Mercedes AMG Mercedes GT3 was the first driver into the 1m45s with a 1min45.893sec lap, but he was outpaced by 0.4sec by Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M4, and the pair were split by the GTD Pro cars of Ross Gunn (Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage) and Davide Rigon (Risi Competizione Ferrari 488).

Then Ben Barnicoat sprang to the top with a 1min45.220sec in the #14 GTD Pro Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F before Rigon’s next effort was a 1min45.195.

McAleer nudged ahead of Foley in GTD with four minutes to go.

But Connor De Phillippi in the works BMW M4 of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on his first flyer delivered a sensational 1min44.755sec to head GTD Pro, just 0.048sec ahead of Gunn’s Aston Martin. De Phillippi decided he could do no better, and hoped no one else could, and pitted. Gunn, too, had no more bullets and pulled in.

Behind them, McAleer’s final effort moved him to the head of GTD, ahead of Rigon’s Ferrari and Barnicoat’s Lexus, and thus scored his first ever IMSA pole.

The second Lexus of underrated Am driver Richard Heistand was next up, second in GTD, a mere 0.009sec ahead of Foley’s BMW, which in turn outpaced the fastest Porsche 911 GT3 R, the Pfaff Motorsports GTD Pro entry steered by Mathieu Jaminet.

Cla	Driver		Class	Chassis	Time	Gap	km/h
1	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist		DPi	Acura DPi	1'29.580		136.637
2	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque		DPi	Acura DPi	1'29.744	0.164	136.387
3	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais		DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'30.048	0.468	135.927
4	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn		DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'30.242	0.662	135.635
5	Olivier Pla Pipo Derani Mike Conway		DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'30.500	0.920	135.248
6	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval		DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'31.059	1.479	134.418
7	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker		LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'33.930	4.350	130.309
8	Steven Thomas Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito		LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'33.931	4.351	130.308
9	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer		LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'35.448	5.868	128.237
10	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Dylan Murry		LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'35.778	6.198	127.795
11	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade		LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'35.838	6.258	127.715
12	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya		LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'36.120	6.540	127.340
13	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel		LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'37.658	8.078	125.335
14	Nico Varrone Max Hanratty James Vance		LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'40.028	10.448	122.365
15	Dakota Dickerson Josh Sarchet Tyler Maxson		LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'40.590	11.010	121.682
16	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz		LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'41.288	11.708	120.843
17	Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Gabby Chaves		LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'41.360	11.780	120.757
18	Daniel Goldburg Rasmus Lindh Cameron Shields		LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'41.471	11.891	120.625
19	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo		LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'41.481	11.901	120.613
20	Anthony Mantella Matthew Bell Wayne Boyd		LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'42.296	12.716	119.652
21	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel		LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'42.392	12.812	119.540
22	Orey Fidani Kyle Marcelli Lars Kern		LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'42.886	13.306	118.966
23	Ugo De Danny Formal Dillon Machavern		LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'43.193	13.613	118.612
24	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus		GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	1'44.755	15.175	116.844
25	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas		GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'44.803	15.223	116.790
26	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller		GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'45.077	15.497	116.486
27	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon		GTD PRO	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'45.169	15.589	116.384
28	Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood		GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	1'45.215	15.635	116.333
29	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand		GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'45.417	15.837	116.110
30	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan		GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'45.426	15.846	116.100
31	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet		GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'45.548	15.968	115.966
32	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst		GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'45.631	16.051	115.875
33	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson		GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'45.634	16.054	115.871
34	Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount		GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'45.756	16.176	115.738
35	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen		GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'45.762	16.182	115.731
36	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco		GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'45.916	16.336	115.563
37	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor		GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'46.259	16.679	115.190
38	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal		GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'46.264	16.684	115.184
39	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin Ian James		GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'46.309	16.729	115.136
40	Cooper MacNeil Maro Engel Mikael Grenier		GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	1'46.699	17.119	114.715
41	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper		GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'46.821	17.241	114.584
42	Jon Miller Paul Holton Patrick Gallagher		GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'46.936	17.356	114.460
43	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly		GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'47.466	17.886	113.896
44	Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander		GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'47.497	17.917	113.863
45	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson		DPi	Cadillac DPi	2'17.096	47.516	89.280
46	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Lance Willsey		LMP3	Ligier JS P320
47	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher		GTD	Acura NSX GT3
48	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson		GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R
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