IMSA: Pla, MSR roll on in Petit Le Mans qualifying

The Michael Shank Racing with Olivier Pla Show continued in qualifying for Saturday's 10-hour IMSA season finale at Road Atlanta. The Frenchman placed the MSR Ligier JS P2-Honda on pole (1m13.061s) with another emphatic performance that left Tristan Nunez in the No. 55 Mazda Prototype (-0.459s) and Prototype championship leader Dane Cameron (-0.842s) with no answer for his supreme pace.

"We knew we had a car that would be competitive here in clean air," Pla said. "We kept improving the car in every session, tomorrow is the race, and we will push hard to the finish. [Finishing] P2, P3, I don't care [about]; we want to win."

Robert Alon's remarkable fourth pole of the season came on his father's birthday, and with his No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team angling for the PC championship, it came at the right time.

"Just knowing this is the last race and everyone's pushing for the win, it's nice to be out front," Alon said. His pole lap (1m16.411s) edged championship leader Alex Popow in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport entry (-0.059s) and BAR1 Motorsports' Johnny Mowlem, who will retire after Saturday night, was a disappointed third (-0.084s).

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The GT Le Mans wars continued as Ford's Richard Westbrook took pole in the no. 67 GT (1m18.131s) to edge the Blue Oval's in-state rivals at Corvette Racing. Antonio Garcia came close in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R (-0.152s) and Toni Vilander followed in third with the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F488 GTE (-0.163s).

"It's a show of intention of how we're going to attack the race," said Westy, who earned his third pole of the year and faces a significant deficit to the No. 4 Corvette team in the standings. "We're just going to try and keep it at the front. All we can do is keep the pressure on them and hope for the best."

The No. 4 C7.R driven by Tommy Milner was seventh in GTLM.

Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating will need a miracle to win the GT Daytona championship in their No. 33 Dodge Viper, and while they can't guarantee divine intervention, Bleekemolen made sure they will at least start from pole position (1m21.305s).

"Great run; the whole week the car has been pretty good," the Dutchman said. "It's the last race for the Viper here and we want to give it a good farewell with pole."

Teenage ace Matt McMurry was an impressive second in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (-0.460s) and Mario Farnbacher completed the GTD top three in the No. 23 Alex Job Racing/Team Seattle Porsche 911 GT3 R (-0.593s). The championship-leading Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 driven by Christina Nielsen was fourth.

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