IMSA Road America qualifying report: Filipe Albuquerque breaks lap record to score pole for WTR Acura

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 driver Filipe Albuquerque put down a record-breaking lap to secure the pole for the Fastlane Sports Car Weekend at Road America. The qualifying session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Elkhart Lake went through smoothly for most categories, with small drama happening to GTD Pro and DPi frontrunners.

Ricky Taylor’s 1m48.915sec lap made him the first driver to go under the 1m49sec mark. Following him was the #02 Cadillac Racing DPi of Earl Bamber in second place, after setting the pace during the second practice session. The only non-qualifier was #01 Cadillac, with Sébastien Bourdais crashing out, thus failing to make a lap time.

The LMP2 entries were only separated by less than one second during the qualifying, with #11 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Steve Thomas edging off teammate Patrick Kelly by less than two tenths.

In LMP3, Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier driver Malthe Jakobson was the only driver to get under the two minutes with a 1m59.434sec lap time.

Jack Hawksworth secured his sixth pole position in his 68th start in the IMSA championship. The #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RCF GT3 driver topped the chart of the GTD Pro category at the latter part of the qualifying after #3 Corvette Racing driver Antonio García set the pace for most of the session. Second place went to #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, as Matt Campbell’s final run failed after a spin at the final corner. The #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 also encountered a close call, as Alex Riberas almost went off track at The Kink before settling down at fifth place in GTD Pro.

The GTD pole went to Robby Foley’s #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3. Foley, along with the likes of Robert Megennis’ #39 CarBahn Lamborghini Huracán GT3 and Steve McAleer’s #32 Team Korthoff Mercedes-AMG GT3, were entries that made quicker lap times than the #25 BMW Team RLL of John Edwards, who had to settle down at fourth place in GTD Pro mixing up the front of the GTD starting grid with Pro and Pro-Am entries.