Laurens Vanthoor nailed a 49.133sec lap of Lime Rock Park to edge Porsche teammate Nick Tandy and take the #912 car’s first pole of the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for this afternoon’s Northeast Grand Prix.
Tandy set the fastest first sector in the #911 Porsche, but Vanthoor clawed that deficit and more back over Sectors 2 and 3 to claim pole by 0.052sec.
Vanthoor’s margin of less than 0.2sec over the fastest non-Porsche was perhaps less than expected given the 911 RSRs’ pace in practice, but a bigger surprise was the identity of their nearest challenger.
Connor De Phillippi set a brilliant 49.322sec in the #25 BMW M8, over half a second faster than teammate John Edwards and well able to outpace Dirk Muller in the Ford GT and the two Corvette C7.Rs of Antonio Garcia and Oliver Gavin.
Ryan Briscoe in the #67 Ford and Edwards will roll off from the fourth row.
A close battle in GT Daytona saw Trent Hindman dig deep for his third pole of the season in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX, setting a new track record and beating Ben Keating in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 by 0.026sec.
The Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3, qualified this week by Corey Lewis who is subbing for Ryan Hardwick, was just a further 0.05sec in arrears while behind him Robby Foley slotted the Turner Motorsport BMW M6 into fourth, despite being only 0.08sec from top spot.
Zacharie Robichon was fastest of the Porsches, grabbing fifth for Pfaff Motorsports ahead of the quicker of the two AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC Fs, the #14 of Richard Heistand.
The Northeast Grand Prix begins at 3.10pm local (Eastern) time.
Session results:
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 912 | | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 49.133 | |
2 | 911 | | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 49.185 | 0.052 |
3 | 25 | | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 49.322 | 0.189 |
4 | 66 | | GTLM | Ford GT | 49.458 | 0.325 |
5 | 3 | | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 49.690 | 0.557 |
6 | 4 | | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 49.748 | 0.615 |
7 | 67 | | GTLM | Ford GT | 49.808 | 0.675 |
8 | 24 | | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 49.864 | 0.731 |
9 | 86 | | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 51.456 | 2.323 |
10 | 33 | | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 51.482 | 2.349 |
11 | 48 | | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 51.532 | 2.399 |
12 | 96 | | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 51.536 | 2.403 |
13 | 9 | | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 51.575 | 2.442 |
14 | 14 | | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 51.642 | 2.509 |
15 | 73 | | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 51.661 | 2.528 |
16 | 63 | | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 51.719 | 2.586 |
17 | 91 | | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 51.785 | 2.652 |
18 | 76 | | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 52.008 | 2.875 |
19 | 57 | | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 52.059 | 2.926 |
20 | 11 | | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 52.226 | 3.093 |
21 | 12 | | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 52.236 | 3.103 |
View full results |
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