McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Nate Cicero won the pole Friday (May 1) for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 with a lap at 90.681 mph. It is Cicero’s second pole of 2026.
Cicero won the pole by .058 seconds over Koch-Copeland Motorsports’ Ford Koch. RAFA Racing Team’s Varun Choksey will start third in his Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2. BSI Racing’s Lucas Weisenberg qualified a career-best fourth in his Supra, while CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister will start fifth in his BMW.
Cicero didn’t take long to assert himself during the session. He set the first time in the session that was quicker than the TCR cars. That put him first overall with his first lap at speed.
Koch was able to go faster than Cicero as the former Mustang Challenge regular cooled his tires. When it was time to go again, he was able to set the fastest second sector of the entire session en route to pole. He was credited with running eight laps, but only two of them were truly at speed.
In TCR, it took a little while for the top guys to get up to speed. Montreal Motorsports Group’s Louis-Phillippe Montour was quick early on.
Bryan Herta Autosport’s Lance Bergstein put himself on provisional pole six minutes into the session with a representative time. That time was ultimately beaten by Montour.
With a little less than five minutes remaining in the session, BHA’s Mason Filippi set a lap at 90.148 mph to put himself on top. That lap held up to take the class pole.
For Filippi, this weekend was supposed to be double duty for him. However, his team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, DXDT Racing, was forced to withdraw due to a transporter fire.
Filippi’s lap was good enough for eighth overall. It was .126 seconds faster than Montour. KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering’s Rocco Pasquarella was third in his Honda. Lance Bergstein was a strong fourth in his Hyundai, while Stallion Motorsports’ Raphael Reis will start fifth in his Cupra Leon VZ TCR.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Qualifying Results
The WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 is scheduled to go green at 3:45 p.m. ET Saturday. Coverage will begin at 3:40 p.m. ET on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and Peacock.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.