Tom Blomqvist took pole for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s season finale, Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, for the #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-05 squad.
The Brit set a 1:08.555, just a few hundredths short of the qualifying lap record. He was followed by Earl Bamber, driving the #02 Chip Ganassi Cadillac DPi-V.R., 0.233 off Blomqvist’s pace-setting time.
Third in DPi and overall was Ricky Taylor in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05, 0.247 adrift of Blomqvist. Mid-way through the session, Taylor spun at the car at the tricky, uphill turn 5 left-hander. He kicked up gravel as the Acura skated over the kitty litter, but the car came to a stop on the tarmac escape road.
That, however, was Taylor’s session done — but, as he didn’t cause a red flag stoppage, he kept his fastest lap, good enough for third.
In LMP2, on track at the same time as the DPis, Steven Thomas, Dennis Andersen and Ben Keating had a magnificent battle for pole. In the end, it ended in that order, with Thomas, setting a 1:11.939, in the #11 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07-Gibson prevailing over Andersen in the #20 High Class Racing Oreca 07, 0.082 off Thomas.
Keating was third, just under four tenths off Thomas in the sister #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07-Gibson after initially setting the pace in the class.
In LMP3, a red flag, caused simultaneously by Dan Goldburg and Anthony Mantalla, interrupted proceedings, after both spun at turn 6 at almost the same time. Both last their fastest times and will start at the back of the LMP3 field for tomorrow’s race.
After the stoppage, the two professional drivers in the class, Kay van Berlo and Malthe Jakobsen, set about battling for top honours and first on the grid.
In the end, it was van Berlo who took pole in the #74 Riley Motorsport Ligier JSP320, setting a 1:15.517. Jakobsen was a further tenth off in the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JSP320. In third, Jared Andretti was over one and half seconds off van Berlo in the #36 Andretti Autosport Ligier JSP320.
Over in the GT ranks, in GTD Pro, Jack Hawksworth took pole in the #14 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3, with a 1:18.835. In second was Alex Riberas in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, 0.208 off Hawksworth. Third went to Jesse Krohn in the #25 BMW Team RLL M4 GT3, just under four and a half tenths off Hawksworth.
Finally, in GTD, Madison Snow put the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 on pole, setting a 1:19.118. This was actually quicker than Krohn in GTD Pro, by a tenth and a half, putting Snow third fastest of all the GTD cars.
Second went to Robert McGennis in #39 CarBahn Lamborghini Huracan GT3, 0.388 off Snow. Jaden Conwright, behind the wheel of the #42 NTE/SSR Lamborghini Huracan GT3, was third fastest, over four tenths off Snow’s pole-setting time.
The 10-hour endurance race gets underway on Saturday 1st October at 12:10pm ET.
