Lime Rock IMSA: Vanthoor takes pole in Porsche front-row lockout

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:

ClaNumDriverClassChassisTimeGap
1912 Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor
GTLMPorsche 911 RSR49.133 
2911 Patrick Pilet
Nick Tandy
GTLMPorsche 911 RSR49.1850.052
325 Tom Blomqvist
Connor de Phillippi
GTLMBMW M8 GTE49.3220.189
466 Joey Hand
Dirk Muller
GTLMFord GT49.4580.325
53 Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia
GTLMCorvette C7.R49.6900.557
64 Oliver Gavin
Marcel Fassler
GTLMCorvette C7.R49.7480.615
767 Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook
GTLMFord GT49.8080.675
824 Jesse Krohn
John Edwards
GTLMBMW M8 GTE49.8640.731
986 Mario Farnbacher
Trent Hindman
GTDAcura NSX GT351.4562.323
1033 Ben Keating
Jeroen Bleekemolen
GTDMercedes-AMG GT351.4822.349
1148 Bryan Sellers
Corey Lewis
GTDLamborghini Huracan GT351.5322.399
1296 Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley
GTDBMW M6 GT351.5362.403
139 Dennis Olsen
Zacharie Robichon
GTDPorsche 911 GT3 R51.5752.442
1414 Richard Heistand
Jack Hawksworth
GTDLexus RC F GT351.6422.509
1573 Marco Seefried
Patrick Long
GTDPorsche 911 GT3 R51.6612.528
1663 Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander
GTDFerrari 488 GT351.7192.586
1791 Anthony Imperato
Matt Campbell
GTDPorsche 911 GT3 R51.7852.652
1876 Paul Holton
Matt Plumb
GTDMcLaren 720S GT352.0082.875
1957 Katherine Legge
Christina Nielsen
GTDAcura NSX GT352.0592.926
2011 John Potter
Andy Lally
GTDLamborghini Huracan GT352.2263.093
2112 Frankie Montecalvo
Townsend Bell
GTDLexus RC F GT352.2363.103

Source: Read Full Article