Normally, qualifying for IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge races is a relatively quiet time for Trent Hindman. His teammate Cameron Cassels usually qualifies the car while Hindman cheers on his Canadian teammate. That was not the case on Friday.
Hindman was given the nod to qualify his Trim-Tex No. 12 Porsche and he did not disappoint. Hindman turned in lap of 55.388 seconds (99.444 mph) to claim the Grand Sport and overall pole for Saturday’s Lime Rock Park 120.
Afterwards, Hindman was admittedly surprised that he was even in the car for qualifying.
“I say that it was pretty good, man,” a somewhat laid-back Hindman told Frontstretch in the paddock. “It was a little bit of a surprise, to be honest. What was more of a surprise was being told that you’re qualifying. That was a last-minute change. Not too sure what our guys are brewing up. Just know that [Bodymotion Racing] gave me a good car, it was my job to do the best I can with it.”
Hindman’s lap was a full four-tenths of a second faster than Stevenson Motorsports’ Matt Bell in second. Rennsport One’s Dylan Murcott qualified third, followed by KohR Motorsports’ Jack Roush Jr. and C360R’s Paul Holton.
In Street Tuner, the Mazdas came out to play. Freedom Autosport’s Chad McCumbee set the fastest lap (59.052 seconds, 93.274 mph) in the first five minutes of the session. The rest of the ST challengers took shots at it, but were unable to top it as McCumbee held on to take the class pole.
Afterwards, McCumbee attributed his pole to Lime Rock Park suiting the Mazda MX-5 well.
“Besides Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Lime Rock [Park] is absolutely the best racetrack we go to for our Mazda,” McCumbee said after his lap. “Mazda just gives us such a great platform to work from. We’ve been around here for a few years now and hopefully we can keep tweaking and the team has been working hard on the Freedom car and hopefully we can get to the top here again tomorrow.”
McCumbee led a Mazda 1-2-3 with Murillo Racing’s Christopher Stone and Freedom Autosport’s Britt Casey Jr. rounding out the top three. James Clay will start the No. 84 BMW 328i in fourth. MINI JCW Team’s Derek Jones qualified the No. 73 MINI fifth in class, but he will not start there.
In post-qualifying inspection, IMSA officials found that both Jones’ No. 73 and Mike LaMarra‘s No. 37 did not use the properly marked tires on the rear of the car. As a result, Jones and LaMarra (who qualified ninth in class) will have to start at the rear of the field. Freedom Autosport’s Liam Dwyer will start fifth in class as a result of Jones’ times being deleted.
Results of IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Lime Rock Park 120 Qualifying
The Lime Rock Park 120 is scheduled to go green at 10:25 a.m. Saturday morning. The race will be streamed live at IMSA.com and FansChoice.tv for free.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.