Aitken puts Cadillac on pole for Sebring 12 Hours

Porsche Penske Motorsport led every practice session yesterday, but it’ll be Cadillac Whelen starting on pole for the 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Saturday morning after Jack Aitken scored the Action Express Racing-run No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R’s third qualifying triumph at Sebring in the last four years.

The top spot changed hands many times, but 2023 Sebring winner Aitken pulled through with a 1m46.153s to win the pole for he and co-drivers Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti. Aitken’s best lap was only 0.3s behind the GTP course record set by former co-driver Pipo Derani in 2023.

“From what we saw in practice, it was some really quick cars out there. We were up there," Aitken said. "I think we were trying to find a little bit of something, especially as the conditions were cooling off. It's one of the coolest Sebrings that we've had for a few years.

“Just getting the tire to work with you is a bit of a job. We know that we're relatively strong in qualifying. Again, I have a fantastic car. The Whelen Cadillac was giving me a lot of confidence. It's a really tough lap around here, so I don't think anybody gets a perfect lap, but we were closest.

“It's a lot of fun – I enjoyed it a lot. We're going to keep doing our homework tonight and expect we're going to have some stiff competition tomorrow.”

Sharing the front row will be the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06. Tom Blomqvist qualified second with a 1m46.262s to break up what would have been an all-Cadillac front row, as Filipe Albuquerque went third fastest in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac with a 1m46.298s.

The fastest of the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s was the No. 6 Porsche; Kévin Estre set a 1m46.395s to qualify fourth, ahead of the No. 40 WTR Cadillac of Louis Deletraz. Defending Sebring overall winner Felipe Nasr qualified sixth at the very end in the No. 7 Penske Porsche.

Behind them, Kaylen Frederick in the new-look No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche qualified a very impressive seventh, ahead of both BMW M Team WRT cars, and the No. 93 MSR Acura of Renger van der Zande.

Ross Gunn qualified 10th in the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie as the GTP field was covered by 1.296s.

A first career pole for Misha Goikhberg. Jake Galstad/IMSA

In LMP2, Misha Goikhberg in the new-look No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen ORECA 07-Gibson won the pole position – the first career pole for the 13-year IMSA veteran – in only his second race back behind the wheel of an LMP2 car. Goikhberg’s best lap was a 1m51.182s, putting him at the top of what ended up as a close fight for the top spot with only 0.078s separating first from third place.

Daniel Goldburg qualified second in the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA with a 1m51.255s, only five milliseconds ahead of defending Sebring class winner Jeremy Clarke in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA with a 1m51.260s.

PJ Hyett actually set the fastest time in LMP2 qualifying, but will start fourth in the No. 99 AO Racing “Spike” car. Hyett forfeited his fastest lap of 1m50.941s as a consequence of his accident in Practice 1 on Thursday, which brought out a red flag. Instead, he’ll fall back on his time of 1m51.322s, still a strong effort in the rebuilt No. 99 car.

Daytona winner George Kurtz qualified fifth in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car.

Hawksworth has Lexus on point for its centenary start. Michael Levitt/IMSA

On the eve of his 100th IMSA race for Lexus, Jack Hawksworth set a new GT3 course record to win the GTD Pro pole for Vasser Sullivan Racing and the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3.

Hawksworth and co-drivers Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood will start up front after Hawksworth set a lap time of 1m58.480s with six minutes left in the session. That broke not only his own GTD Pro course record set in 2024, but also Daniel Serra’s long-standing GTD class record of 1m58.710s set back in 2018.

It also put pole position out of reach for Luca Stolz, who put the part-time No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO second on the grid with a 1m58.769s. UPDATE: The No. 48 has been sent to the rear of the GTD Pro grid; all of Stolz’s times were invalidated due to the car failing to pass minimum ground clearance requirements.

Rolex 24 winners Paul Miller Racing and Neil Verhagen will therefore start second with the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, which set a 1m58.886s, followed by Ricardo Feller in the No. 911 Manthey “Grello” Porsche 911 GT3 R in third, and Dean MacDonald in the No. 59 RLL Team McLaren (720S) GT3 EVO in a strong fourth.

Antonio García will start fifth in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, ahead of previous course record holder Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, and Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette.

AO Racing’s “Roxy” looked strong in practice but the No. 77 Porsche could do no better than eighth in qualifying.

Andrea Caldarelli will start 12th in the debuting No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3; Caldarelli’s lap was a 2m00.062s, 1.582s behind the record time of Hawksworth.

Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello, son of former F1 driver Rubens, put Heart of Racing up front in GTD. Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Heart of Racing Team’s No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo won the pole in GTD for the second time in two races, and second-generation Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello captured his first IMSA pole position.

Barrichello, in just his third IMSA WeatherTech race, set a 1m58.856s to rip the pole away from Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG. Ellis’ time of 1m58.980s puts the back-to-back Sebring-winning team second on the GTD grid, just like its GTD Pro counterpart.

Robby Foley qualified third in the split-liveried No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW, ahead of Scott Andrews, who was fourth in the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG – but appeared to have mistimed his approach to the start/finish line and lost the chance to set one more flying lap at the end.

Le Mans overall winner Antonio Fuoco in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari rounded out the top five in GTD.

UP NEXT: The 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring starts Saturday at 10:00am ET, with live coverage on Peacock.

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