Jack Aitken has taken pole for Petit Le Mans, the traditional season finale of the IMSA Sportscar Championship, with the Cadillac driver setting a 1:09.639 to go fastest by under a tenth from Porsche’s Matt Campbell.
This marks the British-Korean driver’s first IMSA pole, in the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R.
At the start of the session it was the JDC-Miller Porsche of Phil Hanson who set the initial pace with just under 10 minutes to go, with a 1:10.444 the benchmark.
The first driver to go under 70 seconds, though, was Jack Aitken’s Cadillac stablemate Sebastien Bourdais, in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, with the Frenchman lapping Road Atlanta in 1:09.964.
However, Aitken then beat Bourdais, first setting a 1:09.688, around three tenths quicker than his Cadillac factory teammate. Matt Campbell, in the #7 Porsche 963, set a lap just a few hundredths off Aitken, but the Cadillac driver responded to put his lap further out of reach, with his pole sitting time a 1:09.639, 7 hundredths faster than Campbell.
With the Aussie Porsche driver second, third went to BMW’s Connor de Philippi, who set his lap late on to go just under three tenths slower than Aitken.
Fourth went to Bourdais, with Filipe Albuquerque the fastest of the Acuras, in the #10 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06.
Keating claims stunning LMP2 pole for United Autosports
Ben Keating took pole in LMP2 in the #2 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson, with a stunning lap, a 1:12.973, to go fastest in the 15 minute session.
Keating initially set a 1:12.994 as his first representative lap to top the timesheets, and from there was never truly challenged by the other 10 cars in the field. At that point he was almost half a second ahead of Steven Thomas in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca.
Thomas, plus Inter Europol PR1 Mathiasen’s Nick Boulle and the AO Racing machine of PJ Hyett, all started to improve, with Boulle getting within a tenth of the Texan in the #52 Inter Europol PR1 Mathiasen Oreca.
But, Keating then improved again, lowering his lap time by two tenths, which proved unbeatable for everyone.
Thomas was the only other driver to go under the 73 mark, taking second with a 1:12.973. Third went to Hyett in the #99 AO Racing Oreca, with Boulle fourth and Dan Goldburg, in the sister #22 United Autosports car, fifth.
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