Yelloly puts Acura Meyer Shank on Road America pole

Nick Yelloly powered the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 to the pole position for tomorrow’s IMSA Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix.

In qualifying, Yelloly took the No. 93 Acura’s third pole of the year, his second individually, to lead an all-Acura front row of the grid for the six-hour endurance race at Road America. Yelloly’s best lap of 1m49.233s wouldn’t be beaten despite the persistence of teammate Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 MSR Acura. He improved lap after lap, settling in with a 1m49.390s to lock in second on the grid.

“I think going back since the inauguration of this car, it’s been fast here,” Yelloly said. “We knew we’d be competitive, and when we tested here a few weeks ago, the car felt good. It needed a good lap coming together for pole position though, so I’m happy with that. You’re never super confident, but I felt if we had a good lap we could be in the top four after a new tire run yesterday. I’m happy to be at the front, so you don’t get caught out by the silliness in the first few laps.”

Behind the two Acuras, the Spider-Man-themed No. 24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 qualified third, after Sheldon van der Linde set a 1m49.597s. Louis Delétraz set a 1m49.613s to put the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R fourth on the grid.

Then it was Laurens Vanthoor rounding out the top five in the Sunoco 917/30-liveried No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Jack Aitken qualified sixth in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac, followed by Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 WTR Cadillac, Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, and then Felipe Nasr in the DHL RS Spyder-liveried No. 7 Penske Porsche.

The GTP grid was completed by the No. 25 WRT BMW (Marco Wittmann) and the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche (Kaylen Frederick).

In LMP2, Daniel Goldburg took the pole in United Autosports USA’s No. 22 ORECA 07-Gibson, his first of the year. LMP2 qualifying was completed without any major incidents, but with less than five minutes left on the clock, Goldburg set a 1m54.212s to put pole position out of reach, by just over a quarter of a second.

Misha Goikhberg qualified second in the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen ORECA (1m54.474s), placing him ahead of Jeremy Clarke in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA, and PJ Hyett in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA.

Points leader George Kurtz was fifth fastest in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA 07-Gibson, even after losing his fastest lap for causing a red flag during the morning practice session.

Harry King lifted AO Racing’s “Rexy” to the pole in GTD Pro in the final minutes, capturing his first career IMSA pole position, and the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R’s first pole since the 2024 Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Klaus Bachler in the No. 911 Manthey “Grello” Porsche had the early advantage once teams started setting proper laps. The former AO Racing driver’s best time, a 2m04.283s, was deleted due to track limits, but he’d fall back on a 2m04.308s to slot into fifth on the grid. Then with less than three minutes to go, King set a 2m04.265s to take provisional pole, and on his final flying lap, he secured the top spot with a 2m04.042s.

GTD Pro points leader and defending class winner Neil Verhagen was second in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO (2m04.182s), followed by reigning series champion Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, and Max Esterson in the No. 59 RLL Team McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Vasser Sullivan Racing was able to prepare its backup No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 in time for Jack Hawksworth to turn laps, though his car would have to serve a mechanical black flag not long after taking to the course. It will start from the rear of the GTD Pro grid after having its lap times deleted.

Lilou Wadoux's first pole was the first for a woman in the WeatherTech Championship since 2018. Jake Galstad/IMSAmerica, winning her first career IMSA pole position

And in GTD, Lilou Wadoux excelled in her first qualifying session at Road America, winning her first career IMSA pole position. It also marked the first pole of the year for the No. 21 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo. She becomes the first woman to win the pole for an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race since Katherine Legge grabbed the GTD pole at Laguna Seca in 2018.

“I’m quite happy with this pole. We had a difficult Watkins Glen (after an accident with the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac), but now we have a new car for here, and the team did an amazing job to ensure we had a good car," said Wadoux. "It was not easy with the rain in FP2, but in the end we did a good job.

“Last week at a test here was my first time at the track. It’s a really nice track. When you come to the USA, the tracks are always a little bit old-school. I enjoy every moment; it feels quite special.”

Wadoux took the top spot in her Ferrari with a lap of 2m04.688s, to knock Winward Racing’s Russell Ward from the top spot. Ward’s best lap of 2m04.753s was struck off the board, however, for failing to adhere to the car’s controlled powertrain parameters, knocking the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO down to sixth on the GTD grid.

Zacharie Robichon and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, therefore, moved up to second in class, starting ahead of the No. 068 Car Blanche Aston Martin of Valentin Hasse-Clot. Only two milliseconds separated the two Vantage GT3 Evos’ best lap times. In fourth place was Casper Stevenson in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, and in fifth was Patrick Gallagher in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Adam Adelson in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche failed to set a representative time; he was given a mechanical black flag during the 15-minute GTD session.

Tomorrow’s landmark endurance race at Road America goes green at 10:40am local time, streaming on Peacock in the United States, and in over 210 other countries on the official IMSA YouTube channel.

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