Vanthoor Scores Fourth Consecutive Pole for BMW

Photo: Perry Nelson/IMSA

Dries Vanthoor scored his fourth consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position, maintaining his undefeated qualifying record, for Sunday’s Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The Belgian reeled off a GTP record-breaking 1:12.854 lap time in the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 to narrowly edge out the No. 6 Penske Porsche of Matt Campbell by 0.005 seconds.

The No. 7 Porsche, which had a fire extinguisher bottle malfunction in final practice, will start the two-hour and 40-minute race in third, thanks to Felipe Nasr’s 1:12.932 lap time.

Ricky Taylor made continuous improvements in the session to qualify fourth in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, ahead of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomvist, who completed the top-five.

The No. 25 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde was sixth, ahead of Jordan Taylor’s No. 40 WTR Cadillac in seventh.

Nick Yelloly qualified the HRC US-engineered No. 93 Acura in eighth, with Frederik Vesti and Gianmaria Bruni completing the top-ten for Action Express Racing and JDC-Miller Motorsports, respectively.

While set to roll off again from the rear of the 11-car field, the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie had its most competitive qualifying effort to date, with Roman De Angelis coming within nine-tenths of the pole-sitter’s time.

Altoe, Koch Claim GTD Pro, GTD Poles

DragonSpeed earned its second consecutive GTD Pro class pole with a late flyer by Giacomo Altoe in the No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3.

Altoe’s 1:20.608 in the Anti Social Social Club-liveried Prancing Horse was 0.036 seconds quicker than the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Dan Harper, who also made last-lap improvement.

Altoe’s co-driver Albert Costa gave the Elton Julian-led team class pole at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

Alexander Sims qualified third in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which was quickest during the majority of the 15-minute session.

Klaus Bachler and Nicky Catsburg completed the top-five in class for AO Racing and Pratt Miller, respectively.

GTD pole honors went to the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Kenton Koch, thanks to a 1:20.810 lap time.

It was just 0.009 seconds quicker than Alec Udell in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette that ended up second.

Koch scored his first career WeatherTech Championship pole in the car he’ll share with Seth Lucas.

Casper Stevenson, who was on a last-lap flyer, got caught up by a slowing Brendon Iribe as the checkered flag flew and was unable to improve on his third quickest time in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

The No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 and class championship-leading No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG completed the top-five in class.

Seven different GT3 manufacturers qualified in the top-seven in GTD.

Both MSR Acuras, as well as the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, all lost their quickest times in qualifying due to bringing out red flags in practice.

The Monterey SportsCar Championship gets underway Sunday at 3 p.m. EST with live coverage on NBC, Peacock as well as IMSA’s YouTube channel for international viewers.

RESULTS: Qualifying