BRASELTON, Ga. — It’s been a quick weekend for Ibiza Farm Motorsports. Michael Cooper was fastest in practice both Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. When it came time to go against the clock, Cooper’s teammate Moisey Uretsky was game.
Uretsky won the pole Thursday evening (Oct. 9) for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge FOX Factory 120 with a lap at 106.439 mph. It is his first career pole coming off of a victory at Indianapolis.
Uretsky won the pole by .180 seconds over Panam Motorsport’s Caio Chaves. McCumbee McAleer Racing’s Nate Cicero will start third, then Czabok Simpson Motorsport’s Morgan Burkhard and Copeland Motorsports’ Ford Koch.
Mars was the first driver to set a representative lap time in the Grand Sport session. Having pit stall No. 1 definitely helped his case as he had a clear lap.
However, he had plenty of competition. Koch was able to snatch the advantage away first on his second hot lap, while Team TGM’s Paul Holton was close behind.
With the cooler conditions, times continued to fall. Chaves put his Supra on provisional pole briefly, only for Uretsky to best him 15 seconds later.
From there, the rest of the field took their shots at the McLaren driver’s time. However, no one could beat it.
The session did not have a red flag, but there was an incident. In the closing minutes, AR Motorsports’ David Hampton spun exiting the chicane and damaged the nose on his Porsche. However, he was able to driver his car back to the pits without issue.
Mars will have to try to win the GS championship Friday for himself and teammate Jan Heylen from seventh on the grid.
In TCR, Montreal Motorsport Group’s Louis-Phillippe Montour was quickest early on in the session in his Honda, looking for his fourth pole of the year. However, that was short-lived as Precision Racing LA’s Celso Neto put himself on top.
Bryan Herta Autosport’s Mason Filippi was next to go on top of the chart in his Hyundai. He then improved to a lap at 105.204 mph, the first TCR lap in the 86-second bracket this weekend.
Over the final seven minutes of the session, the remainder of the class took their bites at Filippi’s time. While some of the contenders got close, no one could keep Filippi from winning the class pole.
Filippi ended up .067 seconds faster than Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Eric Powell, who won the pole and the race last time out at Indianapolis. Bryson Morris in the second BHA Hyundai will start third, followed by Neto and Montour.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge FOX Factory 120 Qualifying Results
The Pilot Challenge season will conclude Friday afternoon with two hours of racing on the 2.54-mile circuit at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Coverage will begin at 12:35 p.m. ET on both the IMSA Official YouTube channel and on Peacock. The green flag will fly at 12:40 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.