Road America IMSA: Cameron shatters DPi lap record to win pole

Oliver Jarvis performed superbly for Mazda Team Joest to split the Acura ARX-05s before the session was interrupted by a red flag caused by Matt McMurry dropping his P2 car into a sandtrap.

However, when action resumed and Helio Castroneves went out for the final five minutes, the Brazilian veteran was a man on a mission, and his last effort drew him to within 0.016sec of Cameron to complete an Acura Team Penske front row.

Jonathan Bomarito was not so successful in finding a clean lap in the second Mazda and was disappointed to wind up 0.4sec off teammate Jarvis, but it was still quick enough for fourth.

Simon Trummer earned the honor of being quickest Cadillac DPi-V.R driver in JDC Miller Motorsports' #84 entry but he was 1.2sec off the ultimate pace, albeit 0.2sec ahead of Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani.

A brief and mild rain shower between the abbreviated GTD session and the GT Le Mans session left some localized damp patches, one of which sent Jan Magnussen’s #3 Corvette C7.R skating on at the final corner, although he dug himself out without assistance.

Magnussen’s teammate Oliver Gavin was the first driver to eclipse the GT Daytona times, and it took until his third lap to do so. Thereafter the track started drying rapidly, Patrick Pilet’s #912 Porsche took a turn at the top but then Tom Blomqvist’s #25 BMW M8 set a new GTLM lap record at 2min00.344sec to go P1. He then pitted.

Gavin looked like he was going to be Blomqvist’s closest challenger, 0.319sec behind; then Ryan Briscoe completed a strong lap in the final seconds to beat Gavin by 0.005sec, but the former IndyCar driver was adjudged to have exceeded track limits at Turn 1 and his lap was invalidated. 

Thus Briscoe was relegated to fourth, where he’ll start alongside the second BMW of Jesse Krohn, who was some 0.4sec slower than his teammate.

Dirk Muller (Ford) and Laurens Vanthoor (Porsche 911 RSR) comprise third row, while Magnussen and Pilet wound up seventh and eighth respectively.

Two-time Road America winner Ben Keating earned his first pole position in GTD, although the last five minutes of the session were chopped off due to lightning in the area halting the session early.

Nonetheless, given the pace of the Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG-GT3 all weekend, it seems unlikely that anyone was going to topple him. He was four-tenths clear of the rest of the field, led by Corey Lewis in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan, who just edged Matt Plumb’s Compass Racing McLaren 720S by 0.06sec mere nanoseconds before the red flag.

Zacharie Robichon’s Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R grabbed fifth ahead of Trent Hindman’s Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX and Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M6.

Richard Heistand made it seven different cars in the top seven spots, the #14 Lexus RC F of AIM Vasser Sullivan beating Ana Beatriz’s Acura by just 0.001sec.

Tomorrow’s 20min warm-up session starts at 8.30am local (Central) time, with the race getting the green flag at 1.35pm.

UPDATE: Both BMW M8s were sent to the back of the GTLM grid after ride height infractions were discovered in post-session scrutineering checks.

It means the #4 Corvette inherits class pole, ahead of the two Ford GTs and the #912 Porsche.

Session results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	6	Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya	DPi	Acura DPi	1'48.715
2	7	Ricky Taylor Helio Castroneves	DPi	Acura DPi	1'48.731	0.016
3	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'48.949	0.234
4	55	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'49.381	0.666
5	84	Simon Trummer Stephen Simpson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'49.911	1.196
6	31	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'50.111	1.396
7	5	Joao Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'50.783	2.068
8	10	Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'50.799	2.084
9	85	Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'51.251	2.536
10	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	DPi	Nissan DPi	1'51.257	2.542
11	38	Cameron Cassels James French	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'52.037	3.322
12	52	Matt McMurry Patrick Kelly	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'53.264	4.549
13	25	Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	2'00.344	11.629
14	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	2'00.663	11.948
15	24	Jesse Krohn John Edwards	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	2'00.767	12.052
16	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	2'00.835	12.120
17	66	Joey Hand Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	2'00.922	12.207
18	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	2'01.038	12.323
19	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	2'01.085	12.370
20	911	Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	2'01.836	13.121
21	33	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'05.250	16.535
22	48	Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'05.663	16.948
23	76	Paul Holton Matt Plumb	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	2'05.723	17.008
24	9	Matt Campbell Zacharie Robichon	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'05.890	17.175
25	86	Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'06.028	17.313
26	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	2'06.105	17.390
27	14	Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'06.425	17.710
28	57	Katherine Legge Ana Beatriz	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'06.426	17.711
29	91	Anthony Imperato Dennis Olsen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'06.432	17.717
30	63	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	2'06.537	17.822
31	73	Patrick Lindsey Patrick Long	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'06.886	18.171
32	44	John Potter Andy Lally	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'07.509	18.794
33	8	Parker Chase Ryan Dalziel	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	2'08.156	19.441
34	12	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'08.289	19.574
35	74	Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Mercedes-AMG	2'08.392	19.677
View full results