Formal, Persing Charge to Laguna Seca Poles

Photo: Jamey Price/Lamborghini

Danny Formal and Nick Persing have claimed pole positions for this weekend’s pair of Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Formal jumped to the top of the times in Qualifying 1, placing the No. 1 Pro class Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 he shares with Hampus Ericsson 0.370 seconds clear of Will Bamber with his 1:22.628 benchmark time.

Dario Capitanio took the Pro-Am pole position for World Speed, setting the third-best overall lap time and outpacing the majority of the Pro class field in Q1 in the process.

WTR’s Persing was fourth-fastest overall in Q1 ahead of Jaden Conwright, who rounded out the overall top five in the No. 22 World Speed Lamborghini he shares with Scott Huffaker.

Graham Doyle gave WTR its third Race 1 class pole, 0.003 seconds clear of David Staab at the head of the Am field in the first of two 15-minute qualifying sessions.

One Motorsports’ Nick Groat took both the Race 1 and Race 2 poles, emerging on top in a tight qualifying battle in class, 0.139 seconds ahead of Adrian Kunzle in Q1 and just 0.046 seconds up in Q2.

Persing will lead the field to green in Race 2 after taking the No. 8 Lamborghini to the top of the Q2 times to complete a Pro class qualifying sweep for WTR.

Persing’s 1:23.538 lap was enough to secure pole, 0.125 ahead of stablemate and Pro-Am pole-sitter Brendon Leitch aboard the No. 69 shares with Anthony McIntosh.

Elias De La Torre will start third in Sunday’s Race 2 and second in Pro ahead of forty7 Motorsports’ Al Morey in fourth and Kaizen Autosport’s Wyatt Foster in fifth.

Staab took the Am class pole in Qualifying 2 in his Precision Performance Motorsports entry.

Dean Neuls received a mechanical black flag in the opening stages of Q1, prompting an extended trip down pit lane to resolve the issue.

Later in the first session, Sam Shi went for a spin at Turn 5, and Anthony Bullock separately looped his One Motorsports Lamborghini around at Turn 3, but both drivers continued without issue.

Q2 was interrupted by a red flag when Shi went off at Turn 3 in his solo-driven TR3 Lamborghini, losing his two best lap times as a penalty for causing the stoppage.

Running resumed with just over eight minutes remaining. A handful of other drivers found the runoff, but none of the incidents impacted the rest of the session. Q1, meanwhile, ran uninterrupted.

Race 1 for Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America takes the green flag at 4:45 p.m. PST with live coverage available on Peacock as well as Lamborghini Squada Corse and IMSA’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1/Qualifying 2