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Blomqvist soars to Petit Le Mans pole for Acura

With a new GTP qualifying lap record around Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Tom Blomqvist took the pole position for the Motul Petit Le Mans on behalf of Acura Meyer Shank Racing.

Blomqvist and co-drivers Colin Braun and Scott Dixon will start up front in the blue No. 60 Acura ARX-06.after Blomqvist set a 1m09.628s on his second flying lap during the 15-minute GTP qualifying session. That beat the previous GTP course record, set by Cadillac Whelen’s Jack Aitken last year, by 0.011s.

Blomqvist also took the pole at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but was penalized after qualifying for a technical infringement, giving the pole to Aitken, who went on to win.

Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R qualified second with a 1m09.827s, putting him in between the two Acura MSR cars, with the No. 93 ARX-06 of Nick Yelloly (1m09.908s) qualifying third.

2024 GTP champion Felipe Nasr qualified fourth in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 (1m10.241s), with teammate and 2025 GTP championship leader Matt Campbell in the No. 6 Penske Porsche starting sixth.

In between, Ross Gunn put together a great run to qualify fifth in the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie.

Romain Grosjean (No. 63 Lamborghini Squadra Corse SC63) qualified seventh in the Lamborghini SC63’s final race before a one-year minimum hiatus for the program.

Filipe Albuquerque (No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac) qualified eighth, ahead of the two BMW M Team RLL Hybrid V8s, led by the No. 24 of Dries Vanthoor in ninth.

TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas took his second LMP2 pole of the year in a disrupted 15-minute session.

George Kurtz went off and into the tire barrier at Turn 5, bringing out a red flag with a little over five minutes left on the clock. He was able to drive his No. 04 Crowdstrike by APR car out of the barrier, but he went from sixth to the rear of the LMP2 field via the loss of his two fastest laps.

The session resumed with three minutes and 20 seconds to go, not quite enough time for anyone to unseat the No. 11 TDS ORECA 07-Gibson and its best lap of 1m13.157s.

Jeremy Clarke qualified second in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition car (1m13.397s). Meanwhile, PJ Hyett in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA qualified third after his fastest lap was deducted for causing a red flag in Practice 2 when he spun at Turn 10.

Hyett only dropped one position due to the penalty, and importantly, he qualified one position ahead of his championship rival Daniel Goldburg in the No. 22 United Autosports USA car.

Goldburg in fourth was ahead of teammate Nick Boulle (No. 2 United Autosports USA), and Gar Robinson (No. 74 Riley) qualified sixth for his last IMSA LMP2 race.

A last-ditch effort by Dan Harper in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO earned him his second straight GTD PRO pole to close out the season.

Aaron Telitz in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 was denied his first career IMSA pole; he’d leapt to the top of the board with a 1m18.690s, which stood as the top time until, with less than two minutes left, Harper used a new set of Michelin tires to his advantage, laying down a 1m18.672s.

Harper improved to a 1m18.523s and secured the pole position, but not the fastest time in GTD PRO qualifying. That belonged to title contender Albert Costa, who set a 1m18.430s with the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 in the closing seconds. But the No. 81 Ferrari carried a penalty from Practice 2 when its fuel pump failure was deemed the cause of an avoidable red flag, and thus it lost its fastest lap.

Costa fell back to a 1m18.763s to qualify fourth, behind Telitz and the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg in third.

Laurin Heinrich was fifth in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, followed by Neil Verhagen (No. 1 Paul Miller BMW) and Sebastian Priaulx (No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3).

Championship leader Antonio García qualified eighth in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R, four positions behind title rival Costa’s Ferrari.

Cetilar Racing’s No. 47 Ferrari 296 GT3 will start at the front of an all-Ferrari front row in GTD after Lorenzo Patrese scored his first career IMSA pole.

The second-generation Italian set a 1m18.316s – faster than the GTD PRO pole time of Harper – to put himself clear of the GTD field. He’ll start alongside countryman Riccardo Agostini, who qualified second in the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari (1m18.605s).

Valentin Hasse-Clot qualified third in the No. 19 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, breaking up what would have been a Ferrari 1-2-3; Lilou Wadoux went fourth fastest in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari.

Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis qualified fifth in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, only one position and six hundredths of a second ahead of his sole surviving championship rival, Casper Stevenson in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin in sixth.

Bob Akin Award rivals Brendon Iribe (No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari) and Orey Fidani (No. 13 AWA Corvette) qualified 15th and 19th respectively.

The 28th annual Motul Petit Le Mans starts tomorrow at 12:10pm ET. US viewers can watch the first three hours of the race coverage on their local NBC affiliates, and the entire race on the Peacock streaming platform. Viewers in over 230 other countries can watch the race on the official IMSA YouTube channel and IMSA.TV.

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