Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global’s Filipe Albuquerque won the pole Saturday (Aug. 3) for Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend race with a lap at 134.187 mph. It is Albuquerque’s first pole of 2024.
“The car was brilliant,” Albuquerque said after the session. “When I did my best lap, I thought, ‘This is it. I cannot go faster.’ I tried one more [in desperation], but I was two or three-tenths off.”
Albuquerque’s lap was .262 seconds faster than teammate Jordan Taylor. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Renger van der Zande will start third, then Proton Competition’s Gianmaria Bruni. Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani will start fifth in his Cadillac.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Dane Cameron was fastest early on in the session. Then, he had an off-course excursion in the Carousel that saw him blast through the gravel and eventually, the grass. Luckily, Cameron did not hit anything.
Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque was fastest overall in practice on Friday, so he appeared to have a fair amount of pace. However, that lap was in the 111-second bracket.
During qualifying, Albuquerque put himself on top with a lap in the 109-second bracket. That was the beginning. Albuquerque continued to improve and set what ended up being the pole lap on his sixth lap at speed.
LMP2 saw Inter Europol Competition with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Nick Boulle lead the pack early on. However, AO Racing’s PJ Hyett quickly put “Spike” on the provisional pole.
United Autosports’ Ben Keating crashed his Wynn’s-sponsored entry during Practice No. 2 Saturday morning. Just being able to qualify at all required a substantial amount of repairs for his ORECA 07-Gibson. With no laps on the repaired car, Keating was able to turn in the third fastest time on his first lap at speed.
Hyett continued to improve his time. His second lap at speed dipped into the 113-second bracket. With a minute to go, he set a lap at 128.126 mph. That was good enough for Hyett to take his fourth straight LMP2 pole.
Hyett’s lap was .372 seconds faster than Keating, who set a quick lap late to take second. Dan Goldburg was third in the second United Autosports entry, then Boulle. Richard Mille AF Corse’s Luis Perez Companc will start fifth in class.
In the GT ranks, it took quite a while for drivers to get themselves up to speed. It was more than a third of the session before truly representative times were set.
GTD Pro saw Nicky…
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