MSR breaks BMW pole streak with all-Acura front row in Detroit

BMW’s streak of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position was broken on the streets of Detroit, at the hands of Acura, Meyer Shank Racing and Nick Yelloly.

After four straight poles from the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, this time it was Yelloly in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 that claimed pole for Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic.

It appeared BMW M Team RLL’s pole run would continue after some fast laps from the No. 25 of Sheldon van der Linde, but Yelloly had other plans. With four minutes left, Yelloly snatched the top spot away from van der Linde with a 1m06.276s.

The Brit gained more time as he continued to circulate – to a 1m06.051s, a 1m05.981s, and then finally a 1m05.762s at the checkered flag.

Meyer Shank’s Tom Blomqvist was second-fastest in the blue No. 60 Acura, setting a 1m05.908s, the only other driver below 66s on a fastest lap, securing an all-Acura front row ahead of the two BMWs.

Van der Linde’s best time of 1m06.078s was good enough for third, ahead of the No. 24 BMW of Dries Vanthoor, whose pole streak ended with a fourth-place run.

The two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s locked out row three, the No. 6 of Matt Campbell in fifth, then the No. 7 of Nick Tandy, the championship co-leader – despite Tandy losing his best lap from bringing out a red flag in the preceding practice session.

Similarly, the three Cadillacs qualified seventh through ninth, led by the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R of Jack Aitken, followed by the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque.
In front of General Motors’ global headquarters.

Ford Multimatic Motorsports locked out the front row in GTD PRO with Sebastian Priaulx starting up front in the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3, with Christopher Mies at his side in the No. 65. Priaulx took provisional pole with a 1m10.922s. Mies improved to a 1m11.251s to secure second just as an incident behind him brought out a red flag with about five minutes left.

It was a disappointing end for DragonSpeed super-sub Rasmus Lindh as he clipped the wall coming around the exit of Turn 3, fishtailed and spun into the left-side wall. His car stopped, brought out a red flag, and the No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 will have to start from the back of the GTD PRO grid Saturday.

While the session was extended to achieve the minimum guaranteed green flag time, the single-lap extension didn’t allow for enough time for improvements from any driver, certainly none that would break up Ford’s front-row lockout.

Jack Hawksworth was third-fastest in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, then the two Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVOs – the No. 1 of Neil Verhagen and the No. 48 of Dan Harper in fourth and fifth.
Tommy Milner was sixth-fastest in the No. 4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, not where he’d hoped to be after both Corvettes led 1-2 in the preceding practice sessions. After losing his fastest lap for causing a red flag in practice, Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette was only ninth.

Championship leader Klaus Bachler will start eighth in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R behind the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini, which also had its fastest time deleted due to causing a red flag in practice.

There will be a 20-minute final practice on Saturday morning from 10:35~10:55 a.m. ET before the 100-minute race starts at 3:40 p.m. ET, airing on Peacock within the United States and in most other countries on the official IMSA YouTube channel and IMSA.tv.

Update: The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus was penalized after qualifying due to a technical infringement and has been moved to the back of the GTD PRO grid. IMSA technical inspectors found that the car did not meet the minimum ground clearance requirements.

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