Rennsport One’s Luca Mars set a lap at 97.909 mph Saturday morning (Sept. 20) a few minutes into qualifying. That time held up to claim the overall pole for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120.
Mars and Jan Heylen could potentially clinch the Grand Sport title Saturday with a good finish. The duo enter the race with a 240-point lead over CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal (who qualified , along with McCumbee McAleer Racing’s Jenson Altzman. If Mars and Heylen were to win and Altzman and the CarBahn duo both finish worse than eighth, the title is theirs.
Mars won the pole by .206 seconds over McCumbee McAleer Racing’s Nate Cicero. Copeland Motorsports’ Ford Koch will start third in his Supra, then Turner Motorsport’s Jake Walker. Team TGM’s Paul Holton will start fifth.
The Grand Sport session started off somewhat normal with drivers slowly working themselves up to speed. Cicero was the first driver to post a competitive time in his Mustang. Series debutant Cameron McLeod was not far behind.
Seven minutes into the session, Mars set a lap at 97.909 mph to put himself on the provisional pole, the first lap under 90 seconds in the session. His crew was following along with timing and scoring and audibly cheered when he set the lap.
Cicero and the other 23 drivers tried their best to beat Mars’ time. However, when time expired, no one managed to do so, giving Rennsport One their second pole of the year.
Ultimately, times were a little slower than in the opening practice session Friday. In that session, Ibiza Farm Motorsports’ Michael Cooper turned in a lap more than two -tenths of a second faster than the pole time.
In TCR, drivers were treated to the coolest track conditions of the entire weekend. 8 a.m. ET is about as early as on-track sessions come in IMSA outside of the Rolex 24.
Early on, it was the Hyundais that were at the front of the pack. Lance Bergstein put the No. 18 Hyundai on top early on.
Just before the halfway point of the session, Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Eric Powell put his Cupra VZ TCR on provisional pole with a lap at 95.984 mph. He then improved his time slightly.
Montreal Motorsport Group’s Louis-Phillippe Montour was the closest competitor to Powell for much of the session, followed by Precision Racing LA’s Celso Neto. Powell eventually improved to a lap at 96.052 mph before pulling in and setting the rest of the pack go after it.
No one had been able to beat Powell on single-lap pace in practice Friday. No one beat him in qualifying as Powell won the first pole for the Cupra in Pilot Challenge.
Powell ended up .362 seconds ahead of Neto. Montour will start third in class, then Bryan Herta Autosport’s Mason Filippi and Mark Wilkins.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 Qualifying Results
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 is scheduled to go green at 12:40 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. Coverage will begin at 12:35 p.m. ET on both the IMSA Official YouTube channel and on Peacock.
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.