Acura’s Nick Yelloly took pole for the IMSA Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit, with the Briton in the #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 setting a 1:05.762.
In fact, it was a 1-2 for Acura, with Yelloly’s teammate Tom Blomqvist in the #60 machine second, 0.146 behind. Third was Sheldon van der Linde in the #25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, three tenths off Yelloly.
Early on it looked like the battle for pole would once again be between the two German manufacturers in IMSA GTP class, BMW and their rivals Porsche.
Nick Tandy, in the #7 Porsche 963, and his BMW rivals, S. van der Linde and the South African’s teammate Dries Vanthoor in the #24 BMW, were the early fastest.
The three traded fastest laps between themselves for the first half of the session. This culminated in S. van der Linde topping the pile, with a 1:06.351, with Tandy second and D. Vanthoor third.
S. van der Linde then went quicker with a 1:06.328, but Yelloly came in with a 1:06.276 to go quickest.
He then kept improving, getting his lap time down to 1:05.762 with his final lap. S. van der Linde, Tandy and D. Vanthoor couldn’t match this, but Blomqvist came close, with a 1:05.981.
The two Acuras, then, were the only cars to get under 66 seconds around Detroit. Third was S. van der Linde, 0.316 off Yelloly.
Fourth was D. Vanthoor, his run of four consecutive IMSA poles coming to an end in fourth. Fifth and sixth were the two Porsches, #6’s Matt Campbell ahead of Tandy in the #7. However, Tandy will lose his fastest lap for causing a red flag in practice, which may drop him back.
Seventh, eighth and ninth were the three Cadillacs, in their backyard and hometown of Detroit. Jack Aitken, in the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R, was just over a second off Yelloly, while the two Wayne Taylor Racing-run cars were eighth and ninth, with Filipe Albuquerque in the 310 car ahead of Louis Deletraz in the #40 machine.
10th was Gianmaria Bruni in the #85 JDC Miller Porsche 963, while 11th went to Roman de Angelis in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie, almost two seconds off Yelloly.
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