Aitken makes a golden hour dash to IMSA pole at Watkins Glen

It took over two and a half hours for IMSA qualifying to commence following a lengthy delay due to track repairs, but under beautiful “golden hour” conditions, it only took 15 minutes for GTP championship leader Jack Aitken to put the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R on the pole for tomorrow’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.

On his second flying lap of the 15-minute GTP qualifying session, Aitken set a blistering time of 1m31.284s to capture his second pole of the 2026 season and the third of the year for the Action Express Racing-run Cadillac Whelen car after Earl Bamber got the pole in Detroit.

Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist qualified second in the No. 60 Acura ARX-06, posting a 1m31.481s, less than two-tenths slower than Aitken’s pole time.

Louis Deletraz fell just six thousandths of a second short of making it an all-Cadillac front row, qualifying third in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac (1m31.487s); he’ll instead share row two with the No. 93 MSR Acura of Renger van der Zande in fourth (1m31.524s).

Laurin Heinrich handled qualifying duties in the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963. He set a 1m31.704s to go fifth-quickest after his final lap of 1m31.635s was deleted; this was the consequence of the No. 5 JDC-Miller Porsche bringing out a red flag earlier in the day during the second free practice session.

Dries Vanthoor qualified sixth in the leading No. 24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8, ahead of the No. 10 WTR Cadillac (Filipe Albuquerque), the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 (Laurens Vanthoor), and the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie (Ross Gunn).

Following extensive repairs to the kerbs at the Inner Loop chicane, Race Control would take a much more relaxed stance on enforcing track limits at the high-speed sequence.

To lead the first IMSA LMP2 qualifying session in nearly 100 days, Jeremy Clarke took his second pole position of the year in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson.

Clarke fended off strong competition from AO Racing’s PJ Hyett who, like Heinrich, needed two rapid laps to offset a penalty for causing a red flag in the second practice session earlier today. Hyett’s best lap of 1m35.216s was struck off the board, but Hyett was able to fall back on a 1m35.288s that he set earlier to stay second.

But Clarke left no doubt who’d go ‘P1’ when he reeled off a 1m35.124s, better than Hyett’s fastest valid lap and the rest of the LMP2 field.

Daniel Goldburg put the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA third on the grid, followed by George Kurtz in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car. Misha Goikhberg in the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen car rounded out the top five.

Jack Hawksworth captured his third GTD Pro pole of the season aboard the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3.

Neil Verhagen in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO took the early advantage when he set a 1m44.131s on his second flying lap, but Hawksworth would put together two rapid laps under the one-minute, 44-second barrier to snatch the top spot away.

Both Vasser Sullivan Racing cars are carrying the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing name on their respective entries as a tribute to IndyCar Series team owner Dennis Reinbold, who passed away earlier this month.

Hawksworth’s best time was a 1m43.701s. It’ll be an all-English front row in GTD Pro after Harry King set a 1m43.914s to put the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R second on the grid.

Verhagen improved to a 1m44.089s to consolidate third for the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW, followed by Christopher Mies in the No. 65 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo, James Calado in the No. 033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, and Max Esterson in the No. 59 RLL Team McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. This put six different manufacturers in the first three rows.

Championship leader Nicky Catsburg was only able to qualify 10th in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, two positions behind teammate Antonio García in the No. 3 Corvette.

And finally, the GTD grid will be set by 2026 Teams’ Championship points after Russell Ward crashed and brought out a red flag only six minutes into their 15-minute session. Ward clipped too much of the entry kerb into the Bus Stop, lost control, and crashed the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO head-on at the exit of the chicane. 

Since the 10-minute threshold for guaranteed minimum green flag time hadn’t been met before the checkered flag, qualifying was annulled, which puts the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO of Eduardo Barrichello, Tom Gamble and Zacharie Robichon on the pole ahead of the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW.

The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan/Dreyer & Reinbold Lexus will start third; Frankie Montecalvo had set the fastest lap before the red flag (1m44.906s).

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