Nick Yelloly has achieved a remarkable 1-2 for Acura Meyer Shank Racing during the qualifying session of the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix held at Road America.
At the 4.048-mile natural circuit with 14 turns, 35-year-old Yelloly set an impressive time of 1m49.233s behind the wheel of the #93 Acura ARX-06, thus securing pole position. His British teammate, Tom Blomqvist, finished second, just 0.157 seconds behind him.
The third place was taken by Sheldon Van Der Linde, who drove the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of the BMW M Team WRT, followed by Louis Deletraz with the #40 Cadillac V-Series.R of Wayne Taylor Racing.
GTP
Deletraz was the first to set a fast lap, achieving a time of 1m50.703s with about eight minutes remaining in the 15-minute session. Moments later, Yelloly surpassed this time with an initial record of 1m49.733s, improving it to 1m49.233s.
In the closing minutes, Blomqvist, with the sister #60 Acura MSR car, rose to second place with a lap of 1m49.487s. Meanwhile, the #6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor had an incident at corner 5, but recovered and continued to compete.
Ultimately, Vanthoor finished the session in fifth place, ahead of championship leader Jack Aitken, who ended with the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R in sixth place.
LMP2
In the LMP2 category, Daniel Goldburg of United Autosport USA secured his first pole of the season with a best time of 1m54.212s, leaving Misha Goikhberg of Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen behind by 0.262s.
Jeremy Clarke secured third position with the ORECA LMP2 07 number 34 of Inter Europol Competition, while PJ Hyett of AO Racing finished fourth.
GTD Pro
Harry King of AO Racing achieved the class pole after an intense finish, with the top six drivers starting their last laps before the timing closed. King set a best time of 2m04.042s with the #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), surpassing the championship leader, Neil Verhagen of Paul Miller Racing, by 0.140s, who finished second.
Alexander Sims of Corvette Racing secured third position, followed by Max Esterson of RLL Team McLaren in fourth position.
Klaus Bachler of Manthey, who had led on two occasions, saw one of his laps invalidated for exceeding track limits and finished fifth.
GTD
In the GTD category, Lilou Wadoux of AF Corse USA achieved her first pole in IMSA, placing her #21 Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO in first position with a lap of 2m04.688s. This time was better than that achieved by Russell Ward of Winward Racing, who finished second.
Wadoux maintained her position until the end of the session, ahead of Zacharie Robichon of Heart of Racing, who was 0.167s behind.
Valentin Hasse Clot of Car Blanche and Casper Stevenson of DragonSpeed completed the podium in third and fourth positions, respectively, with minimal differences.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
SourceID: SRC_bdbbdf5f51c9e57dd3b8c708bcf38adc3ffde690