Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Nick Tandy won the pole Friday (May 31) for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear with a lap at 90.564 mph. It is the first non-Cadillac overall pole position of the year.
“To find the limit, sometimes, you have to go over it,” Tandy told NBC Sports’ Dillon Welch after the session. “I touched the wall twice in one lap when I was up [on the timing chart] and messed it up. I was lucky to put a lap together before the red flag to get a team one-two, which is mega for a street course.”
Tandy won the pole by .124 seconds over teammate Dane Cameron. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais will start third, then Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global teammates Filipe Albuquerque and Jordan Taylor.
Early on, Bourdais was quickest in his Cadillac, but the Acuras of Albuquerque and Taylor were close behind. Meanwhile, the two BMWs chose to wait before going out. Neither Philipp Eng nor Nick Yelloly set a time in the first half of the 15-minute session.
Cameron was the first driver to break into the 65-second bracket when he took his Porsche to the top of the chart with a lap at 90.041 mph. The margins were extremely tight at the top with no room for error.
The session came to an early end with a little more than two minutes to go when Pipo Derani clipped the wall exiting turn 5, then spun and tapped the wall with his nose. With the guaranteed time in qualifying already complete, the session was complete, giving Tandy the pole.
Derani was seventh fastest at the time of the crash. The standard loss of his two fastest times for bringing out the red flag means that Derani will start at the rear of the GTP class in 10th.
In GTD Pro, Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Tommy Milner was fast early on in his Corvette. He was then usurped by Conquest Racing’s Daniel Serra before getting it back.
As the session wound on, it became an outright duel at the front between Serra, Milner, AO Racing’s Sebastian Priaulx and VasserSullivan’s Jack Hawksworth.
Who came out on top? None of the above.
Milner’s teammate Antonio Garcia set a lap at 85.545 mph with three minutes remaining to put his No. 3 Corvette on the pole. Garcia improved to a lap at 85.712 mph on his final lap to consolidate his pole.
Garcia ended up .336 seconds ahead of Milner, who gave the Corvettes a front-row sweep. Hawksworth will start third, then Priaulx and Serra.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear Qualifying Results
The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear is scheduled to go green at 3:10 p.m. ET. Live coverage will start at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.
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.
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