Yahoo Autos WTR slides to Petit pole in wet-dry qualifying at Road Atlanta
On a wet-but-drying track with conditions improving constantly throughout qualifying for the Motul Petit Le Mans, being last under the checkered flag proved to be an advantage in many cases. That was, until GTP, the final of the three qualifying sessions, began. Heavy mist started falling after a dramatic finish to LMP2/LMP3 qualifying that saw Ben Keating set the fastest time overall in an LMP2 car, leading to worsening conditions as the GTP cars rolled out.
Conditions worsened during the first half of the 20-minute GTP qualifying session for Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, forcing cars that had started the session on slicks to quickly switch to wet tires. But then conditions improved a bit during the second half, and times started tumbling, with the polesitter constantly shifting as the times fell.
Louis Deletraz, the endurance addition for the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06, drew qualifying for the team, and on his second set of wet tires, with only one lap to do it, took the GTP pole with a time of 1m15.402s, nearly 6s slower than the top times of the weekend.
“It was very tough,” Deletraz explained after his first career WeatherTech Championship pole. “I hoped for dry qualy, to be honest, because we were fast in the dry. I think we have a strong car here, and obviously it’s always easier [when it’s dry]. We tried to go out on slicks and it was definitely too slippery; I couldn’t put energy into the tires, couldn’t commit, and I think some drivers are much better than me at that, but I didn’t want to take risk to crash the car. Then on the wets we felt strong. I think we might have pitted a little early compared to some others. We reacted to that…so I feel good.”
While taking the pole moved the No. 10 to the top of the points standings in the extremely close battle for the championship, it won’t likely change how the team needs to finish for Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque to take the title. However, putting three cars between the No. 10 and the next championship contender, the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 qualified in fifth by Nick Tandy, may have an effect in the race. Connor De Phillippi qualified the long-shot No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 in sixth, and erstwhile points leader Pipo Derani ended up eighth in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R.
“Wayne Taylor Racing told me I was going to qualify this weekend and I’m always happy to do it; but a little pressure because we’re fighting for a championship, and it’s a big show of trust from them. I’m always going into qualy with the aim of fighting for a pole, but of course when it’s your first one you never really expect it and I’m super happy for what we achieved. It’s good for the championship, good for me, good for everyone,” said Deletraz, who becomes a full-time driver for the team next season alongside Jordan Taylor.
In between the No. 10 and the other championship contenders was Sebastien Bourdais, who had been near the top of the time sheets all weekend and turned a 1m15.632s lap to start the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R on the outside of the front row. (Despite the GTP cars qualifying behind many of the LMP2 cars, and even some LMP3 machines, they will still be gridded first for the race). Augusto Farfus in the No. 24 BMW, one of the first cars to go onto wet tires, will start on the inside of the second row after a 1m15.731s lap, with Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura alongside.
LMP2 qualifying could play a critical role in the championship, as the order the two championship contenders qualified in could determine where each needed to finish relative to the other to win the championship. Ben Keating scored the pole position of his life by only 0.02s to claim the LMP2 pole ahead of chief championship rival Stephen Thomas. Perhaps more important than the pole is the three-point gain that came with it. That changes the number of positions that Keating and the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA squad must finish ahead of Thomas’s No. 11 TDS Racing squad. Keating and co-driver Paul-Loup Chatin now have a 17-point deficit to Thomas and Mikkel Jensen in the season points championship.
The LMP2 and LMP3 session had the best conditions of the three, and Keating, beginning his final lap having qualified second to Thomas so far, posted a 1m13.859s time as he went under the checker to steal the pole from Thomas by 0.02s.
“We were the first group to go out on slicks, which was the right call, but it was still sketchy,” Keating said. “It’s hard to put heat in the tires on that particular track and you don’t know which curbs you can touch and which ones you can’t. You have to work your way up to it and I did what I thought was a really, really good lap.
“Right there in the second lap before the end, they came on the radio and told me that Steven was 0.25s faster than I was, and I only had one lap to do it. Coming down the back straightaway and my predictive [timing] said I only had 0.1s better than my previous time. I knew I didn’t have enough to get the pole and I had nothing to lose … I took a ton of risk, completely sent it across [Turns] 10A and 10B, and pulled it off. So it was pretty magical to get it in that way. And now I hope that the championship comes down to that to that qualifying.”
John Falb qualified the No. 35 TDS Racing ORECA in third with a 1m14.380s. George Kurtz, who has a far-outside shot at the championship with Ben Hanley but is leading the Michelin Endurance Cup points, will start fourth.
Glenn van Berlo, whose qualifying session included a wild wide through the grass at Turn 3, took the LMP3 pole for Andretti Autosport, turning a 1m16.371s lap in the No. 36 Ligier. Rasmus Lindh put the No. 85 AWA Duqueine second after falling 0.129s short of van Berlo’s best. Freshly minted VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3 champion Bijoy Garg qualified the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier third, followed by Orey Fidany in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine.
Jake Galstad/Lumen
With light rain having been falling since the end of the Michelin Pilot Challenge race, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta was wet, but drying when the GTD cars took to the track for the first qualifying session. Ian James and the Heart of Racing crew rolled the dice, threw on slicks, and saw their gamble pay off with an overall pole position among the GT cars.
“I decided to go for slicks there, one of the few cars that did, so that lent heavily to the result here,” explained Heart of Racing principal James, who steps in as the endurance addition in the No 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. “But in the twilight of my career, it’s just fun to get out there and and have a chance. To get pole here is actually pretty special because it was pretty dicey the first few laps not to crash, but they got faster and faster.
“This Heart of Racing program, it means a lot to me. Exciting news this week and we had some good results for our female program last weekend. Let’s keep the momentum going,” he continued, referencing Aston Martin coming to GTP and Hypercar in 2025 with HoR.
James’s 1m23.116s lap was only 0.052s quicker than GTD PRO polesitter Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus, which will start outside the front row alongside the Heart of Racing Aston.
“It was that situation where the tracks damp, but it’s going to dry and we have to make a decision to go with wets, to go with slicks, and it turned out slicks was was the right decision,” said Hawksworth, who won Petit Le Mans last year with Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood. “Fortunately for us there was only one car in the PRO GT field that went with the slicks. From there it really was just about managing the tire because the track was getting better every lap, but obviously the the wet tires, they get hot and overheat. You would push for a lap and then cool down for two laps, push again for a lap to try and keep the tire there so you’ve always got a time on the board, but once the track’s getting better, you can still post another one. Managing it was quite tricky, but the car was amazing.”
Mirko Bortolotti would have been on the inside of the second row in the GTD PRO Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2, but he left the pit box too early, the penalty for which is all times lost and the No. 63 will start at the back. Instead it was the sister Lamborghini qualifying third overall and second in GTD as Doriane Pin claimed the spot for the Iron Dames with a 1m23.168s. GTD cars took the next two spots, and the two Vasser Sullivan Lexuses will line up nose to tail after Aaron Telitz qualified the No. 12 fourth overall, followed by Bill Auberlen in the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.
Antonio Garcia was the second-quick qualifier in GTD PRO, turning a 1m24.099s lap in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R, and will start sixth. The fourth row will be a pair of Mercedes AMGs, Philip Ellis putting the No. 57 Winward Racing fifth in GTD and will start on the inside of the fourth row, with third-quick GTD PRO qualifier Jules Gounon in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG alongside. The fifth row will be a pair of GTD PRO cars, Patrick Pilet in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and Daniel Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3.
Up Next: An 20-minute warmup at 8:45 a.m. ahead of an 11:40 a.m. race start for the 10-hour Motul Petit Le Mans.
