Porsche Takes Sixth GTD Pole

No driver or manufacturer in the WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona (GTD) class has more pole positions this season than Alex Riberas and Porsche.

Riberas earned his fourth TOTAL Pole Award of the season and Porsche’s sixth GTD pole during a hot afternoon qualifying session at Circuit of The Americas. Riberas posted a best lap of 2 minutes, 8.568 seconds (95.2 mph) in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R he shares with co-driver Mario Farnbacher.

It was the sixth pole of the season for Porsche in the GTD class and was the car’s fifth pole, as Farnbacher added one at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in July. The No. 23 teammates look for their second victory of the season in Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans.

“We really appreciate what the Heart of Racing crew and Alex Job did today,” Riberas said. “It was a magnificent effort from the team to get the car set up for qualifying today. We were struggling with the pace yesterday. Today, we were happy. I set the fastest pace in free practice, but we knew it was going to be hot and I didn’t really know what to expect. The guys did a great job preparing for that and now we are in a great position for tomorrow with the race.”

Lawson Aschenbach qualified second in GTD with a best lap of 2:08.944 (94.9 mph) in the No. 9 Stevenson Automotive Group Audi R8 LMS GT3 he shares with co-driver Matt Bell. Aschenbach and Bell are in search of their first victory of the season, but head into the race carrying the momentum of a season-best second-place result in last month’s Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway.

NOTEBOOK​

• With his fourth pole of the season, Alex Riberas is still the only multi-time TOTAL Pole Award winner this season in the GTD class.
• Three different manufacturers also were represented in the top five positions in GTD qualifying. Porsches were first and third, Audis were second and fourth, and a Ferrari was fifth.
• Saturday’s on-track activities for the WeatherTech Championship begin with a 20-minute warm-up session beginning at 8 a.m. CT.
• The Lone Star Le Mans will be televised live on FS1 beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET.