Update: Following qualifying, the #60 Acura was disqualified for a rules infraction. The #31 was promoted to pole in the process.
Tom Blomqvist took pole position for the IMSA Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with the Acura driver setting a 1:14.569.
This was just 0.041 faster than Jack Aitken in the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R, while Louis Deletraz was third faster in the #40 Cadillac.
The session got off to a slow start, with Dries Vanthoor in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 the first driver to go faster than the LMP2 cars, who had already qualified.
The times soon began to tumble, though, going from Vanthoor’s 1:17.220 to over two seconds faster in just a couple of minutes.
Blomqvist, in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura, set his time with around 5 minutes remaining. No one was able to beat the Briton, but Blomqvist’s countryman Aitken set a late flyer, a 1:14.610, to go second.
Deletraz was third quickest; he was second quickest for a long time but Aitken pipped him in the last couple of minutes, by just over a tenth.
Fourth fastest was the other Wayne Taylor-run Cadillac, with the team owner’s son Ricky in the #10 WTR Cadillac in the car. Fifth was the fastest of the Porsches, Matt Campbell in the #6 Porsche 963, with Nick Yelloly in the #63 MSR Acura sixth.
Seventh and eighth went to the two BMWs, Sheldon van der Linde in the #25 car ahead of Vanthoor in the sister #24.
Boulle on LMP2 pole with stunning lap
Nick Boulle took LMP2 pole in the #2 United Autosports Oreca, with a magnificent 1:17.846 to go quickest by almost four tenths to his United Autosports teammate Dan Goldburg.
Boulle set the time late on as many continued to improve. However, his original fastest lap, a 1:18.084, was also quickest to take pole.
The session was truncated by Chris Cumming beaching his #73 Pratt Miller Oreca in the gravel early on in the session, losing the car’s rear on cold tyres. He would lose his two fastest laps from the session, but didn’t return to the track after the spin, although he was able to drive back to the pit lane after getting a tow from the marshals.
So, with Boulle fastest, it was a United Autosports front row lock out, with Dan Goldburg, in the #22 United Autosports Oreca second. He was 0.376 off his teammate though, and was unable to match Boulle, as was everyone else.
Third was PJ Hyett in the #99 AO Racing Oreca, popularly known as ‘Spike the Dragon’ after the car’s dragon-themed purple livery. Hyett was over half a second off Boulle.
Fourth was Jeremy Clarke in the #43 Inter Europol Oreca, while fifth went to Steven Thomas in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca. Thomas set the second-fastest time late in the session, a 1:18.120, but had this taken away due to his teammate Mikkel Jensen causing a red flag in opening practice yesterday.
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