Helio Castroneves has taken pole position for Acura Team Penske for the TireRack.com Grand Prix at Road America, beating Felipe Nasr to pole by half a tenth.
The Brazilian’s late flyer behind the wheel of the #7 Acura ARX-05, setting a 01:08:674. Castroneves beat out compatriot Felipe Nasr by 0.056, with Nasr setting a 01:18:730 in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-VR.
It marks the second consecutive pole position for Castroneves and team-mate Ricky Taylor, with Taylor taking pole position at Road America in the previous DPi round.
Dane Cameron was third fastest in the #6 Acura, just under a tenth off Castroneves. Tristan Nunez was fourth quickest in the #77 Mazda RT24-P, with both Mazdas running very low to the ground, repeatedly scraping off the ground with their front splitter.
Nunez and fifth-placed Harry Tincknell both aborted their final flying laps prematurely, with Tincknell running wide and bouncing the #55 Mazda across the kerbs at turn 7.
In LMP2, Patrick Kelly had an easy run to pole in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson. Kelly, celebrating his 53th birthday, set a best lap time of 01:12:327. This proved more than enough for pole, as Dwight Merriman had a spectacular slide across the gravel in the #18 Era Motorsport ORECA, and after a second spill off camera, the team opted to end the session early.
With only two LMP2 entries following the withdrawal of Performance Tech Motorsports, Kelly took an easy pole.
Tandy pips Corvette in ultra-close GTLM session
Nick Tandy has taken the second consecutive pole position for the #911 Porsche 911 RSR-19 in a session that saw the front two rows separated by less than a tenth of a second.
Tommy Milner initially led proceedings in the #4 Corvette C8.R, setting a number of consecutive fastest laps until he was beaten to the top spot by team-mate Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette before Tandy improved to a 01:16:167 to take pole position.
Garcia improved late on in an attempt to challenge Tandy for pole, but his best time of 01:16:181 was 0.014s short of pole position. Milner was 0.045s off pole position, with Laurens Vanthoor fourth in the #912 Porsche 911 RSR-19, 0.078s off his Porsche team-mate.
Vanthoor beat out the #25 BMW M8 GTE of Connor de Phillippi by 0.008s, with the BMW in fifth ahead of the #24 BMW of Jesse Krohn.
Lexus back on top in GTD
AIM Vasser Sullivan returned to pole position in GTD, courtesy of Frankie Montecalvo. Montecalvo was fast throughout the session and posted the quickest time by putting in a 01:19:757 in the #12 Lexus RC F GT3.
Montecalvo posted his quickest time moments after dropping to second as Madison Snow put the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo to the top. After losing out to Montecalvo, Snow did improve to a 01:19:907, 0.150s off pole.
Jan Heylen put the #16 Porsche 911 GT3R third on the grid for Wright Motorsports as the top ten runners were separated by less than a second. Shinya Michimi was fourth quickest for Meyer Shank Racing in the #86 Acura NSX GT3 Evo, while Steijn Schothorst improved to a late fifth place with a 01:20:125 in the #11 GRT Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.
Michael de Quesada, team-mate to the polesitting Lexus, had an off-track moment in the #14 Lexus RC GT3 and plowed into the grass put was otherwise able to continue unscarred.
One car did not complete any laps in qualifying as GRT Magnus opted to keep the #44 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo in the garage and skip qualifyinf in order to save a set of tyres for Saturday’s six-hour enduro.
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