Tom Blomqvist took pole in qualifying for this year’s Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, with the Acura Meyer Shank driver setting a new lap record in the process.
The Briton set a 1:09.628 to go quickest onboard the #60 Acura MSR car. This was 0.199 quicker than Jack Aitken, in the #31 Action Express Cadillac machine, who will start tomorrow’s race second.
In his setting of a new lap record, Blomqvist beat Aitken’s previous lap record, set last year when the British-Korean driver took pole in 2024. Blomqvist’s new record is 0.011 faster than Aitken’s old record.
The sister #93 Acura MSR car will start third on the grid, with Nick Yelloly at the wheel during qualifying. He was 0.280 slower than Blomqvist, and means the top three positions in qualifying were taken by British drivers.
Felipe Nasr took fourth in the #7 Porsche 963, while fifth went to Ross Gunn in the #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie.
Sixth went to Matt Campbell in the #6 Porsche 963, while Romain Grosjean claimed seventh in the #63 Lamborghini, in what will be the team’s final race for the SC63 for at least a year.
The #10 Wayne Taylor Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque took eighth, while the two BMWs rounded out the top 10, Dries Vanthoor in the #24 car ahead of Sheldon van der Linde in the #25.
Over in LMP2, Steven Thomas claimed pole in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca, with a 1:13.157.
However, George Kurtz, driving the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca lost his two fastest laps for causing a red flag, and will subsequently start from the back of the LMP2 field.
Jeremy Clarke took second in the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca,almost two and a half tenths slower than Thomas.
Third was PJ Hyett in the #99 AO Racing Oreca, 0.022 slower than Clarke.
Fourth and fifth went to the two United Autosports machines, with Daniel Goldburg in the #22 car ahead of his teammate Nick Boulle in the #2 Oreca.
Patrese and Harper fastest in GTD and GTD Pro
The fastest GTD time was set by Lorenzo Patrese in the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari. The Italian set a 1:18.316 to go quickest amongst both GTD classes. However, IMSA rules dictate that whatever happens, the GTD cars start behind the GTD Pro cars.
Accordingly, the fastest GTD Pro entrant was Dan Harper, in the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW. 1:18.523 was the Northern Irishman’s pole lap, his second consecutive pole in IMSA.
Next up in GTD Pro was Aaron Telitz in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, almost two tenths slower than Harper. Third in class was Nicky Catsburg, behind the wheel of the #4 Corvette.
With Patrese quickest overall amongst both GT classes and therefore in GTD too, second in GTD went to Roberto Agostini in the #021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari, almost three tenths slower than Patrese.
Third, then, was Valentin Hasse-Clot in the #19 van der Steur Aston Martin Vantage, just under a tenth off Agostini.
See the full results on the IMSA website. The race begins tomorrow at 12:00pm local time, 5pm in the UK.
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