ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Nick Yelloly set a lap at 134.153 mph Saturday afternoon (Aug. 2) eight minutes into GTP qualifying. The rest of the class did their best, but they could not prevent Yelloly from winning the pole for Sunday’s Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America. It is Yelloly’s second pole of the year and the team’s third straight.
“[Road America] races are typically track position races. To be to start up front on the pole is a good way to try to control the race that we want to,” Yelloly said in the post-qualifying press conference. “We knew that [it was going to be close] after Practice No. 2 with us being really close to the BMW, but I’m really happy to be on pole.
Yelloly won the pole by .053 seconds over BMW M Team RLL’s Sheldon van der Linde, who started his session later than his rivals. Teammate Dries Vanthoor will start third, just two-thousandths of a second slower than Vanthoor. Colin Braun in the second Shank Acura will start fourth, while Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Matt Campbell was fifth. The top 10 cars overall were separated by just .681 seconds around the 4.048-mile course.
Early on, Campbell was fastest with a lap similar to those set during Practice No. 1 on Friday. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque overtook that time, but Campbell quickly took it back.
However, the session came down to the two cars that were fastest in Practice No. 2 Saturday morning. BMW M Team RLL’s No. 24 and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s No. 93. In the morning, Yelloly was fastest overall in his Acura until Vanthoor took that away in the closing minutes.
Qualifying was similar as Yelloly and Vanthoor traded quick times. Eventually, Yelloly set a lap at 134.153 mph with seven minutes remaining. Vanthoor, van der Linde and Braun took shots at it, but no one could take Yelloly off of the overall pole.
GTP qualifying was not completely clean. JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Gianmaria Bruni locked up and went off at turn 3 early on. Luckily, he didn’t hit anything with his Porsche 963.
LMP2 qualifying normally sees lap times drop throughout the 15-minute session. Saturday was the exception to that rule.
AF Corse’s Luis Perez Companc topped the chart early in the session on his second lap. The next time around, AO Racing’s PJ Hyett set a lap at 128.641 mph to put himself on provisional pole.
That lap in and of itself was good enough for pole. A couple of laps later, Hyett improved to a lap at 128.690 mph, which held up for the pole. It is Hyett’s third straight LMP2 pole.
Hyett won the pole by two-thirds of a second over CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz. United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg will start third, then Tonis Kasemets in the new Team Tonis No. 61. TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas will start fifth.
GTD Pro qualifying was a little unusual. Under normal circumstances, the Pro drivers would be able to outqualify most, if not all of the GTD cars. On Saturday, none of the GTD Pro cars could beat the fastest GTD car.
Giacomo Altoe put his DragonSpeed Ferrari on the provisional pole with a little under six minutes to go. That time was quickly beaten by Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims.
The next time by, Altoe set a lap at 117.614 mph. That lap held up for the class pole. It is Altoe’s second GTD Pro pole of the year.
Altoe won the pole by one-hundredth of a second over Sims. Tommy Milner in the second Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports entry was another hundredth back in third. Paul Miller Racing’s Dan Harper will start fourth in class, while teammate Madison Snow was fifth.
While the top-three GTD Pro teams were competitive with the quickest GTD cars, everyone else was much further down the order. Harper’s lap was only the 10th fastest of GT drivers while Snow’s lap was 12th.
One team failed to take time. That was Pfaff Motorsports’ Lamborghini. In Free Practice No. 2 Saturday morning, Marco Mapelli had contact with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Benjamin Pedersen and went hard into the wall. The Lamborghini was damaged beyond repair at the track.
The team has since gone to a backup car. Specifically, Forte Racing’s backup car. The car was not ready to go for the session, so the team will start at the back of GTD Pro Sunday.
In GTD, Winward Racing’s Russell Ward ended up fastest in class with a lap at 117.765 mph in his Mercedes. The lap was .163 seconds faster than The Heart of Racing’s Casper Stevenson. Triarsi Competizione’s Onofrio Triarsi will start third in his Ferrari, followed by DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens. Vasser Sullivan’s Parker Thompson was fifth in his Lexus.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America Qualifying Results
The Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America is scheduled to go green at 2:10 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon. Coverage will air exclusively on Peacock starting at 2 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.