BMW M Team RLL’s Dries Vanthoor wants to win badly in IMSA. However, he seems to be pretty good at qualifying these days.
With a lap at 110.588 mph Saturday afternoon (May 10), Vanthoor won the pole for Sunday’s TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship. It is his fourth straight pole to start the year.
“It’s really to have four out of four [poles],” Vanthoor told NBC Sports’ Matt Yocum. “It’s a great starting position again and I’m happy to contribute my part to the team. Now, we have to execute a flawless race.”
Vanthoor won the pole by a mere .005 seconds over Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Matt Campbell. Felipe Nasr in the second Porsche was third, then Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor.
Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist will start fifth. He was actually fourth quickest, but lost his best lap due to teammate Colin Braun crashing in practice and bringing out the red flag,
In the session itself, it was Nasr that had the fastest laps early on. However, it didn’t take long for Vanthoor to put himself on top.
A couple of laps later, Nasr retook the provisional pole with the first lap of the weekend in the 72-second bracket. That pole lasted at the top for about 10 seconds before Vanthoor beat it.
For the remaining five minutes, the other 10 GTP drivers tried their best to beat Vanthoor’s time. Campbell came very close, but no one was able to do it.
In the GT ranks, things were very close indeed.
GTD Pro saw Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg put himself on top early on. He ended up having to do battle with an unlikely foe.
That foe was DragonSpeed’s Giacomo Altoe. He was able to set a lap time within a tenth of a second of Catsburg. That drove Catsburg to push harder. That led him to slide off-course in turn 6.
Catsburg’s teammate Alexander Sims was able to take the provisional pole just after the halfway point of the session. Altoe continued to give chase.
With 45 seconds remaining, Altoe set a lap at 99.950 mph. That lap was good enough to give Altoe his first career IMSA pole.
Altoe won the pole by .036 seconds over Paul Miller Racing’s Dan Harper. Sims will start third in class, then AO Racing’s Klaus Bachler. Catsburg will start fifth.
GTD saw Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher top the chart early on in his BMW. However, Vasser Sullivan’s Parker Thompson was able to beat that time.
The lead in the middle of the session was shuffled between Thompson, Team Korthoff Competition’s Kenton Koch and Winward Racing’s Russell Ward.
Koch broke the class record with less than five minutes to go with a lap at 99.701 mph. The other 14 teams attempted to beat it, but no one could prevent Koch from earning his first career pole.
Koch won the class pole by .009 seconds over the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of DXDT Racing’s Alec Udell. The Heart of Racing’s Casper Stevenson qualified third in class, but lost his times after his car measured too low in post-qualifying inspection.
As a result of Stevenson’s penalty, Triarsi Competizione’s Onofrio Triarsi will start third in his Ferrari, followed by Ward. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Danny Formal was fifth.
There were no red flags during the session. However, Triarsi Competizione’s Sheena Monk did spin her Ferrari in turn 111 seven minutes into the session. She was able to keep herself out of the gravel trap and resumed.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship Qualifying Results
The TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship is scheduled to go green at 3:10 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon. Coverage will air live on NBC at 3 p.m. ET.
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.