Nick Yelloly captured a third consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position for Acura Meyer Shank Racing ahead of Sunday’s Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America.
Yelloly set a blistering 1:48.628 lap in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06, narrowly edging out Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 by just 0.053 seconds. The achievement marks the Englishman’s second pole of the season, following his top qualifying performance in Detroit, and continues the team’s streak after Renger van der Zande secured pole at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
BMW locked out the next spot, with Dries Vanthoor placing the No. 24 entry third. He was followed by Colin Braun in the No. 60 Acura and Matt Campbell in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963. Jack Aitken was the fastest Cadillac driver, qualifying sixth in the No. 31 Action Express Racing V-Series.R.
In the LMP2 class, PJ Hyett dominated qualifying to claim his third consecutive pole. Driving the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca 07 Gibson, Hyett posted a 1:53.240, a commanding 0.666 seconds ahead of second-place George Kurtz in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry. The result was also Hyett’s second straight pole at the Wisconsin circuit. Championship leader Daniel Goldberg qualified third, while Tonis Kasemets impressed on his LMP2 debut by securing fourth.
The GT qualifying sessions produced a notable result, with the fastest GTD car outperforming the GTD Pro pole-sitter. Russell Ward took GTD class honors in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with a time of 2:03.745. This was the first pole of the season for Ward, the current championship co-leader, and marked the tenth different pole winner in the GTD class this year. He finished 0.163 seconds ahead of Casper Stevenson in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
In the GTD Pro category, Giacomo Altoe secured a third pole of the season for DragonSpeed. His 2:03.904 lap in the No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 was just 0.010 seconds faster than Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Per IMSA regulations, the entire GTD Pro field will start ahead of the GTD class for Sunday’s race, despite Ward’s quicker overall lap time.
The Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America is scheduled to begin Sunday at 1:10 p.m. CST. The race will be broadcast live on Peacock, with international viewers able to stream via IMSA’s YouTube channel.
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