Cadillac sweeps front row for IMSA Detroit sprint race

Cadillac is on top in the home race after Earl Bamber took pole for the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.

The 35-year-old New Zealander drove Whelen Cadillac’s #31 Cadillac V-Series.R to a quick lap of 1m05.313s around the 1.645-mile, nine-turn street circuit. It’s Bamber’s third career pole, first in GTP.

“The car has been amazing,” Bamber said. “We had a great car last year too. Did some good sim work. This 31 Cadillac Whelen team has done some amazing stuff. When they give you a great Cadillac, it makes your job easier. Can’t wait for it.”

Louis Deletraz, driving the #40 Cadillac prepared by Wayne Taylor Racing, will join Bamber on the front row after qualifying second, 0.322s behind.

GTP

While Bamber and Deletraz set the pace for the top class, it was an abbreviated session.

After Nick Yelloly (Acura Meyer Shank Racing) vaulted to third in the #93 Acura ARX-06 with a time of 1m05.852s, and Marco Whittman (BMW M Team WRT) stood fourth in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, there was trouble for both entries for Porsche Penske Motorsport.

With roughly four minutes left in the session, the #7 Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr missed the apex and was briefly parked off-line at the entry into Turn 1. Moments later, though, teammate Kevin Estre slid into the corner with the sister car #6 and pounded the outside wall, bringing out a red flag that ultimately ended the session. Estre lost his two fastest times as a result of bringing out the red flag.

Sheldon van der Linde (BMW M Team WRT) finished up fifth, ahead of Tom Blomqvist (Acura Meyer Shank Racing) in sixth. Filipe Albuquerque (Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing) was seventh, with Nasr in eighth. Ross Gunn settled in ninth for Aston Martin THOR Team, with Estre 10th.

Tijmen van der Helm, who was part of JDC-Miller’s remarkable victory with Laurin Heinrich at the last round at Laguna Seca, was 11th.

GTD Pro

It was a sparring match between teammates as Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports saw Alexander Sims and Tommy Milner tussle over the top spot.

In the end, it was Sims, driving the #3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, delivering a stout 1m09.354s flying lap to earn the class pole. The quick lap came moments after Sims had a close call and drove deep into Turn 3, nearly making contact with the tire barrier. It marks the fourth career pole for Sims, and first at Detroit. 

#3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims

Photo by: Lumen for IMSA

“Firstly, it’s fantastic to get both Corvettes on the front row,” Sims said. “The cars are working really quite well around here in Detroit. It’s awesome to be driving around these awesome bumpy, fun streets around the RenCen and in GM’s home city. It has a nice home race feel about it with Pratt Miller just down the road, as well.

“We worked pretty hard through practice to get our Corvettes working better and better, particularly over the bumps, and get the balance there. It seems like on our car, we really needed until qualifying to put it together. Just toward the end of FP2, it started to work, and then, yeah, the car was working really nicely and qualifying. Great credit to Pratt Miller for keeping on tuning on our Corvette.”

Milner put the sister car #4 machine in second, with a surging run on the last lap of qualifying that was just 0.043s behind the benchmark time set by his teammate.

Vasser Sullivan’s Ben Barnicoat ended up third, pushing his #14 Lexus RC F GT3 to a distant 0.309s behind Sims.

The Ford Racing duo of Ben Barker and Frederic Vervisch, who went into the runoff in Turn 1 early on, ended up fourth and fifth, respectively, in the #64 and #65 Ford Mustang GT3 machines.

Supercars superstar Chaz Mostert also took part in qualifying, taking part in a one-off effort behind the wheel of Vasser Sullivan’s #15 Lexus RC F GT3. He ended up seventh in class, directly behind Niel Verhagen’s BMW M4 GT3 EVO, in sixth for Paul Miller Racing.

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– The Motorsport.com Team

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