BRASELTON, Ga. — Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken won the overall pole Friday afternoon (Oct. 11) for this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul Petit Le Mans. It is his first career WeatherTech pole. Aitken’s lap at 131.306 mph is a GTP lap record for Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
“It’s a real pleasure to have the track to yourself after all the traffic that we had in practice,” Aitken said during a post-qualifying press conference. “We just made a few changes [to the car] overnight, nothing major.
“It was a lot of fun,” Aitken continued. “Happy that we kept it on the black stuff. Happy that I got my first pole.”
Aitken won the pole by seven-hundredths of a second over Penske Porsche Motorsport’s Dane Cameron. BMW M Team RLL’s Connor de Phillippi will start third, followed by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global’s Filipe Albuquerque.
Like many GTP qualifying sessions, the field took a while to get themselves up to speed. The first driver to set a representative lap time in the session was JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Phil Hanson. His first lap was in the 72-second bracket, then he improved to a lap at 70.444 seconds, 129.805 mph.
Hanson held on at the top for a few minutes before Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Nick Tandy usurped him. It wasn’t long after that that the Cadillacs came out to play.
Cadillacs had topped all three practices on Thursday and Friday didn’t appear to be all that different. Bourdais was able to put himself on top, then Aitken topped him.
A couple of laps later, Aitken bettered his quick time. At that point, he pitted because he was out of fuel. Everyone else took their shots at him, but could not beat the Whelen Cadillac.
The contact resulted in part of Thompson’s nose ending up on the track, which drew a red flag. Both drivers lost their two fastest laps, but continued in the session.
LMP2 saw United Autosports’ Ben Keating lay down the gauntlet early on. His lap at 125.271 mph was the second fastest lap of the whole weekend in LMP2 to that point.
TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas attempted to keep pace and did so to a certain degree. So did Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Nick Boulle.
However, when challenged, Keating buckled down and set the fastest LMP2 lap of the weekend at 125.710 mph with three minutes to go. That was good enough to win the class pole in 12th overall.
Keating’s lap was .234 seconds faster than Thomas. AO Racing’s PJ Hyett will start third, followed by Boulle and Dan Goldburg in the second United Autosports entry.
In the GT ranks, qualifying got off to a slow start. While trying to get themselves in proper position, Risi Competizione’s Daniel Serra clipped the left front corner of Vasser Sullivan’s Parker Thompson.
In GTD Pro, it was AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich who claimed the class pole with a lap at 117.410 mph, the fastest GT lap of the weekend. Heinrich’s lap was .052 seconds faster than Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Tommy Milner. The Heart of Racing’s Ross Gunn will start third in class, then Antonio Garcia in the second Corvette. Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Frederic Vervisch was fifth.
After his penalty, Serra ended up in the back of the class, 23rd of all GT cars. Since the GT cars are mixed together at the start, he’ll have a long way to catch up to his rivals.
Lone Star Racing’s Scott Andrews won the GTD pole with a lap at 116.810 mph, sixth of all GT drivers. Andrews’ lap was .258 seconds faster than Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley. Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis qualified third in class, then Korthoff/Preston Motorsports’ Mike Skeen. WTRAndretti’s Danny Formal was fifth in his Lamborghini.
Thompson ended up at the back of the GTD class among those who qualified after his penalty. Two drivers did not participate in the session. They were Andrew Wojteczko Autosport’s Lars Kern and Triarsi Competizione’s Alessio Rovera.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul Petit Le Mans Qualifying Results
The Motul Petit Le Mans is scheduled to go green at 12:10 p.m. ET Saturday. Coverage will begin on NBC at Noon ET. Starting at 3 p.m. ET, coverage will be exclusive to Peacock. USA Network will pick up the race at 6 p.m. ET and run through the finish.
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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Considering that the GTP cars are uninvited at CTMP do to excess speeds
it might only be a matter of time before the same thing occurs at Road Atlanta
since almost 131.500 mph is flying around said track.