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David Malsher-Lopez

Detroit IMSA: Bourdais wins pole for CGR Cadillac, then spins

The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs didn’t leave pitlane until just before the halfway mark in the DPi class’s 15min session, by which time the Acuras were already in the 1min19sec zone, Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor a tenth quicker than Tom Blomqvist in the Meyer Shank Racing machine. Taylor had just had time to extend that margin to almost half a second, when Sebastien Bourdais delivered a 1min19.017 to put Cadillac on top.

Taylor’s first response drew him to within 0.033sec of the Ganassi car, but couldn’t knock it off the top, even when Bourdais struck the Turn 2 wall trying to improve his time. In fact, it was Blomqvist, a first-timer ont his track, who found the speed from the Acura ARX-05 to beat Bourdais and duck down under the 1min19sec barrier.

But Bourdais, having checked his car wasn’t damaged from the Turn 2 wall-brush, delivered a 1min18.818sec lap to shade Blomqvist by 0.110sec, and beat teammate Alex Lynn by half a second. Then as he tried to improve still further, Bourdais lost the rear end of his car, but somehow kept it off the wall, backed up, and then drove to the pits to celebrate.

A late improvement saw series returnee Olivier Pla in the Action Express Racing Cadillac pip Tristan Vautier’s JDC Miller MOtorSports car, but the pair were 1.5sec behind the polesitter

An equally thrilling battle for GT Daytona honors could have gone one of four ways, as the two Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC Fs of Kyle Kirkwood and Frankie Montecalvo faced up to the challenge of Madison Snow in the BMW M4 of Paul Miller Racing, and Roman De Angelis in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.

All four were chipping away tenths and then hundredths right up until the checkered flag, when Kirkwood made a final improvement to 1min29.096sec that put him 0.118sec beyond the reach of the opposition. Kirkwood, who is pulling double-duty this weekend and who set fastest time in this afternoon’s IndyCar practice session, now has two IMSA GTD poles to his name.

De Angelis was next up, mere hundredths ahead of Snow, with Montecalvo fourth yet only 0.2sec behind his Lexus teammate.

Aidan Read in the Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX was best of the rest, ahead of Robert Megennis in the Carbahn with Peregrine Racing Lamborghini Huracan.

Russell Ward’s Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 edged the similar car of Team Korthoff driven by Stevan McAleer, while Robby Foley was a disappointing ninth in the Turner Motorsports BMW after suffering a trip down the Turn 3 escape road. Ryan Hardwick was 10th in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Cla Driver Class Chassis Laps Time Gap
1 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
France Sébastien Bourdais
DPi Cadillac DPi 8 1'18.818  
2 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
DPi Acura DPi 11 1'18.928 0.110
3 United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
DPi Acura DPi 11 1'18.945 0.127
4 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
DPi Cadillac DPi 7 1'19.334 0.516
5 France Olivier Pla
Brazil Pipo Derani
DPi Cadillac DPi 11 1'20.298 1.480
6 France Tristan Vautier
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
DPi Cadillac DPi 10 1'20.331 1.513
7 United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
United States Kyle Kirkwood
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 10 1'29.096 10.278
8 Canada Roman De Angelis
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 10 1'29.214 10.396
9 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
GTD BMW M4 GT3 11 1'29.286 10.468
10 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Aaron Telitz
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 10 1'29.299 10.481
11 United States Ryan Eversley
Australia Aidan Read
GTD Acura NSX GT3 10 1'29.544 10.726
12 United States Robert Megennis
United States Jeff Westphal
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 10 1'29.781 10.963
13 United States Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis
GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 10 1'29.810 10.992
14 United States Mike Skeen
United Kingdom Stevan McAleer
GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 11 1'29.858 11.040
15 United States Robby Foley
United States Bill Auberlen
GTD BMW M4 GT3 10 1'30.201 11.383
16 United States Ryan Hardwick
Belgium Jan Heylen
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 10 1'30.903 12.085
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