Extreme Speed Motorsports will start the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen from pole position following a record-breaking lap by Pipo Derani.
Driving the No. 2 Nissan-Onroak DPi, Derani turned in a best time of 1:34.405s which slashed the previous record by eight tenths of a second.
The 23-year-old Brazilian held off a stern challenge from Olivier Pla in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JSP217, with the pair separated by 0.162 seconds at the end of the shootout.
The result marks a maiden pole position for the Nissan-Onroak DPi package, which is derived from the global-spec Ligier LMP2.
It also heralds the first IMSA pole for the ESM outfit since the 12 Hours of Sebring last year.
Derani will share driving duties with Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel during Sunday's race, while Pla is joined by Jose Gutierrez.
Row two of the grid will be occupied by two Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, with Christian Fittipaldi (No. 5 Action Express Racing) out-qualifying championship leader Ricky Taylor (No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing).
Both Fittipaldi and Taylor reeled off their quickest times at the latest possible opportunity, but neither could place a scratch on the top-two with Derani lapping a second quicker.
The pair did manage to bump the No. 22 ESM Nissan-Onroak DPi of Johannes van Overbeek down to fifth, to start next to Eric Curran's No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi on row three.
The No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Riley and the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA make up row four, whilst the pair of Mazda DPis bookend the Prototype order.
Quickest in the Prototype Challenge category was James French, driving the so-far-unbeaten Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA.
RESULT: 6 Hours of The Glen qualifying
Ford on pole in GT Le Mans
Joey Hand struck late for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing to seal pole position in GTLM at the end of a thrilling session that saw all eight cars fall under a 0.75 second blanket.
Having posted the second-fastest time during Friday practice, Hand turned in a 1:42.507s on his final flier to launch the No. 66 Ford GT ahead of the pair of BMW M6s driven by Alexander Sims and Martin Tomczyk.
Sims settled for second, three tenths down, whilst Tomczyk fell six hundredths of a second short of his team-mate.
Sandwiching the BMW duo was Richard Westbrook in the sister Ford, with early pace setter Patrick Pilet running fifth in the highest-placed Porsche 911 RSR.
The No. 912 Porsche driven by former Ferrari GT star Gianmaria Bruni and ex-Audi factory man Laurens Vanthoor will start seventh, behind the points-leading Corvette.
In GT Daytona, Andy Lally gave Acura its maiden IMSA WTSCC pole with a time of 1:46.051s set with three minutes to go.
Shortly after Lally's attempt, Lexus driver Sage Karam spun and hit the barriers on the exit of turn nine, bringing out the red flags.
Karam was unhurt in the accident, although the Lexus mechanics now have a series of repairs to carry out before the race, which gets underway tomorrow (Sunday, July 2nd) at 10:10 am local time (EDT).
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