IMSA Laguna Seca: Acuras lock out front row, Corvette tops GTLM
Juan Pablo Montoya beat Acura Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves to land pole for the penultimate round of the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Defending champion Montoya turned a 1min15.174sec of the 2.238-mile WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, to beat his championship-contending teammate Castroneves by 0.159sec.
Oliver Jarvis fell just 0.078sec short of splitting the ARX-05s with his Mazda RT24-Ps, and was a mere 0.009sec ahead of Pipo Derani’s best in the fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, Action Express Racing’s entry piloted by Pipo Derani.
JDC Miller Motorsports’ Tristan Vautier did a fine job to nab fifth ahead of the second Mazda of Jonathan Bomarito, while Ryan Briscoe and Matheus Leist completed the fourth row for Wayne Taylor Racing and JDC Miller respectively.
Patrick Kelly, driving the sole LMP2 entry this weekend, turned 11 laps of the track, and despite a few offs as he explored the limits of his PR1-Mathiasen Oreca, came well within 2sec of the top DPi time.
Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor worked hard to land his fourth GT Le Mans pole position of the season, setting a 1min21.483sec lap – a new GTLM class record – on his final flyer.
Porsche’s Laurens Vanthoor, despite an off, was able to clean his Michelins and draw within a quarter-second of his rival, but it turned out that championship leader Taylor had delivered the #3 C8.R’s fifth pole of the year.
Oliver Gavin, who it was revealed yesterday would be stepping down from Corvette’s full-time driver roster at season’s end, landed P3 ahead of the two BMW M8s.
Frederic Makowiecki’s #911 Porsche emerged late in the session and ran only two laps before pitting.
Matt McMurry set a 1min25.125sec in the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX and then parked after just four laps leaving others a tough target at which to aim. Robby Foley, whose Turner Motorsports BMW M6 topped both of Saturday’s practice sessions, lowered his deficit to the Acura from 0.055sec to 0.014sec but couldn’t quite complete the job and quit trying after six laps. That left McMurry with his first ever GT Daytona-class pole.
Cooper MacNeil was 0.2sec adrift in the WeatherTech Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488, but was fast enough to beat the second MSR Acura of Misha Goikhberg by a tenth.
Frankie Montecalvo’s #12 Lexus RC F took fifth, but the sister car was out of luck. Aaron Telitz suffered a right-rear puncture on the #14 Lexus RC F after turning just three laps and his best effort to that point saw him fall to 10th, since teams aren’t allowed to touch their cars during the qualifying sessions, meaning he was unable to collect a new tire.
That misfortune allowed Ian James to claim sixth in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage ahead of Jeff Kingsley’s Compass Racing McLaren 720S and Till Bechtolshiemer in the Gradient Racing Acura.
The 2hr40min race – the Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship – begins at 1.05pm local (Pacific) time, 4.05pm ET.
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 |  Juan Pablo Montoya  Dane Cameron |
DPi | Acura DPi | 8 | 1'15.174 | |
| 2 | 7 |  Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor |
DPi | Acura DPi | 9 | 1'15.333 | 0.159 |
| 3 | 77 |  Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 7 | 1'15.411 | 0.237 |
| 4 | 31 | Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 8 | 1'15.420 | 0.246 |
| 5 | 5 |  Sébastien Bourdais Tristan Vautier |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 8 | 1'15.461 | 0.287 |
| 6 | 55 | Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 8 | 1'15.580 | 0.406 |
| 7 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande  Ryan Briscoe |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 8 | 1'15.729 | 0.555 |
| 8 | 85 | Matheus Leist  Stephen Simpson |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 8 | 1'15.852 | 0.678 |
| 9 | 52 | Patrick Kelly  Simon Trummer |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 11 | 1'19.598 | 4.424 |
| 10 | 3 |  Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 6 | 1'21.483 | 6.309 |
| 11 | 912 |  Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 7 | 1'21.725 | 6.551 |
| 12 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 6 | 1'21.853 | 6.679 |
| 13 | 25 |  Bruno Spengler Connor de Phillippi |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 5 | 1'22.054 | 6.880 |
| 14 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 4 | 1'22.120 | 6.946 |
| 15 | 86 |  Mario Farnbacher Matt McMurry |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 4 | 1'25.126 | 9.952 |
| 16 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 6 | 1'25.140 | 9.966 |
| 17 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil  Alessandro Balzan |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 7 | 1'25.318 | 10.144 |
| 18 | 57 |  Alvaro Parente Mikhail Goikhberg |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 5 | 1'25.426 | 10.252 |
| 19 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 4 | 1'25.475 | 10.301 |
| 20 | 23 | Ian James Roman De Angelis |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 5 | 1'25.676 | 10.502 |
| 21 | 76 | Jeff Kingsley Paul Holton |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 7 | 1'25.826 | 10.652 |
| 22 | 22 | Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 8 | 1'26.012 | 10.838 |
| 23 | 16 | Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 5 | 1'26.171 | 10.997 |
| 24 | 44 | Andy Lally John Potter |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 6 | 1'26.359 | 11.185 |
| 25 | 14 | Jack Hawksworth Aaron Telitz |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 3 | 1'26.404 | 11.230 |
| 26 | 30 | Rob Ferriol Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 7 | 1'26.791 | 11.617 |
| 27 | 74 | Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 8 | 1'29.460 | 14.286 |
| 28 | 911 | Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 2 | 1'32.856 | 17.682 |
| View full results | |||||||
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