Yelloly secures Long Beach IMSA pole for Acura

On a day that began with the revelation of doubts surrounding the future of Acura’s involvement in IMSA, Nick Yelloly put Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 93 Acura ARX-06 on the pole for Saturday's IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Driving the blue and orange 76-liveried Acura, Yelloly was the first driver to breach the 1m12s barrier when he took the provisional top spot with a 1m11.756s. With less than three minutes to go, Yelloly found another tenth of a second, winning the pole with a 1m11.626s.

Yelloly gave Acura Meyer Shank Racing its second pole of the year, and the second GTP pole for Acura in the last four years.

Unfortunately, the damage that the No. 60 MSR Acura sustained in its Practice 2 crash forced the team to change to its backup chassis, leaving Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun at the back of the GTP grid for tomorrow’s 100-minute sprint race.

Yelloly’s last lap proved to be decisive: At the checkered flag, Marco Wittmann set a 1m11.656s in the No. 25 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8, only 0.030s slower than the pole-winning time.

Louis Delétraz also found some more speed near the end, putting the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R third on the grid with a 1m11.833s – but only 0.011s ahead of stablemate Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R, who qualified fourth.

Despite the recent Balance of Performance nerfs to the factory Porsche 963s, Julien Andlauer put the No. 7 Penske Porsche fifth on the grid, beating Dries Vanthoor, who had an eventful session with two ventures off course; Vanthoor was sixth in the No. 24 WRT BMW.

Ross Gunn qualified seventh in the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, followed by Kévin Estre in the No. 6 Penske Porsche, Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 WTR Cadillac, and Tijmen van der Helm in the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche.

Montecalvo kept the Vasser Sullivan Lexus Long Beach streak rolling. Jake Galstad/Lumen via Getty Images

Frankie Montecalvo overcame a five-minute hold at the start of GTD qualifying to put the No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 on the pole, the third straight GTD pole for Vasser Sullivan at Long Beach.

Both Vasser Sullivan racing cars were held for five minutes for failing to perform a torque sensor offset test before qualifying in a timely manner, along with the No. 46 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3. It cost Montecalvo some track time, but his qualifying pace was superb. On his final flying lap, he set a 1m18.411s to grab the top spot, and deny what could have been a very popular pole position for DXDT Racing and Robert Wickens.

Wickens, on his last lap, set a 1m18.562s in the No. 36 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, good enough for provisional pole for only a few seconds until Montecalvo set his lap. But the second-place qualifying run still puts him on the front row in GTD, one year on from his first IMSA GTD start for DXDT in 2025.

Danny Formal qualified third in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, followed by super-sub Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in fourth, sharing the car with GTD championship leader Eduardo Barrichello.

Russell Ward was fifth-quickest in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, followed by Patrick Gallagher in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Defending GTD class winner AO Racing will start 10th in class after IMSA newcomer Mikkel O. Pedersen’s first qualifying effort aboard the No. 177 “Roxy” Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Orey Fidani will start from the back of the field after spinning his 13 Autosport Corvette at turn 11, then driving the wrong way in order to turn his car around and return to pit lane – an action which saw the Canadian driver parked for the remainder of the 15-minute session.

The IMSA Grand Prix of Long Beach starts Saturday afternoon at 4:05pm ET.

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