WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken won the pole Saturday (June 27) for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen with a lap at 134.082 mph. It is Aitken’s second pole of the year and the team’s third (second straight after Earl Bamber won the pole in Detroit). It is also a GTP track record.
“It turned out to be a long day waiting for the session,” Aitken told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns after the session. “The car felt good. Honestly, really happy with the lap that I [put] together. I knew it was going to be close; there were a couple of guys within a couple of tenths.”
Aitken won the pole by .197 seconds over Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Louis Deletraz was third, followed by Renger van der Zande in the second Acura. JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Laurin Heinrich was fifth in his Porsche. The top-five were separated by less than a half-second.
Qualifying was originally scheduled to start at 3:35 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. However, there was a long delay after the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge LP Building Solutions 120 due to curb damage entering the Inner Loop. As a result, the start was moved to 6:15 p.m. ET after the last support race of the day.
Aitken was the fastest driver in Practice No. 1 Friday. In qualifying, he was the first to set a time. It didn’t take long for him to get under any time seen in the two practice sessions with a lap in the 92-second bracket. He then immediately bettered it.
The other 10 teams did their best to try to run in on Aitken. Deletraz was the most consistently quick of those drivers. However, the improvements were very minute instead of the tenths of seconds that were necessary.
Blomqvist was able to overtake Deletraz for second with a couple of minutes to go in the session, but only managed to beat the No. 40 Cadillac by six-thousandths of a second.
Porsche continues to struggle for pace. Laurens Vanthoor was the fastest of the factory Porsches in eighth, more than a second off of Aitken. Felipe Nasr‘s desire for rain this weekend proved to not be a fluke as he put the No. 7 Porsche 10th on the grid.
AO Racing owner-driver PJ Hyett was fastest early on in “Spike” in LMP2, but United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg and CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz.
Inter Europol Competition’s Jeremy Clarke briefly took over the class pole, but Hyett was able to retake it with a lap at 127.802 mph. Unfortunately, Hyett also had a penalty holding over his head. He brought out a red flag at the end of Practice No. 2.
Clarke ultimately set a lap at 128.674 mph, the quickest LMP2 lap of the whole weekend. That was more than enough to take the pole.
Hyett ended up second, followed by Goldburg, Kurtz and Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ Misha Goikhberg in fifth.
GTD Pro saw Ford Racing’s Christopher Mies go to the top in his Ford Mustang GT3 Evo, equaling the pace that he set in Practice No. 1 on Friday. However, this time was quickly overtaken by Paul Miller Racing’s Neil Verhagen and AO Racing’s Harry King.
With just under five minutes to go, Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth went to the top with a lap at 117.888 mph. He then improved to 118.032 mph, more than four-tenths ahead of anyone else.
The rest of the pack tried to close in on the veteran racer. A couple of drivers were able to improve their times, but no one could keep Hawksworth away from the pole.
Hawksworth ended up .213 seconds ahead of King. Verhagen will start third, then Mies and Triarsi Competizione’s James Calado.
In GTD, Inception Racing’s Brendan Iribe was fastest early on in his Ferrari, but it didn’t take long before Antonio Fuoco, the Ferrari factory racer, put the AF Corse No. 21 on top.
However, six minutes into the session, Winward Racing’s Russell Ward spun exiting the Inner Loop and hit the tires to bring out the red flag. Ward was able to walk away from the crash, but the Mercedes was hurt badly.
In WeatherTech, there is a rule in qualifying that requires a minimum of 10 minutes of green-flag time during a session. If that amount of time is not reached, then “other means” are used to set the grid.
The session was not resumed after the crash. As a result, the “other means” came into play. The “other means” will be team points. Because of that, The Heart of Racing’s Zacharie Robichon will start from pole. Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher will be alongside, then Vasser Sullivan’s Frankie Montecalvo, who had the fastest lap at the time of the stoppage. Ward will start fourth, then Conquest Racing’s Fran Rueda. Despite causing the red flag that ended the session, IMSA regulations do not indicate that Ward would lose his starting spot.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen Qualifying Results
The Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen is scheduled to go green at 12:10 p.m. ET Sunday. Coverage will stream live on Peacock starting at Noon ET.
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.
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